


Marie Alice and the Four Boxes

by lillilah



Category: Fairy Tales & Related Fandoms
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-29
Updated: 2016-01-09
Packaged: 2018-04-17 22:12:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 40,186
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4683236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lillilah/pseuds/lillilah
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is my take on the Grimm-style fairy tale.  It isn't necessarily something that everyone is going to find appealing.  It is kind of dark and deals with more emotional issues than are found in your average fairy tale, I think.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This story was written for a friend. Originally, it was much shorter and written all in one sitting. Since then, it has grown into a larger work. It is dedicated to Alexander Piterskiy.

Once upon a time there was a princess named Marie Alice. The land her family ruled was not too large, but it was large enough to allow them to live comfortably. As with many princesses, she was engaged to be married to a prince when she grew up. Her prince was from a small and not very impressive kingdom to the southeast. Marie Alice tried to be happy about her situation in life, but despite all her efforts, she was very unsatisfied.

One day, she was out walking along the banks of a stream with her good friend Sasha. While he was a very good friend, Marie Alice got easily annoyed with him. He was a foreigner and often said things that she thought were foolish. She hated to be told, "If you want to go to the party, then ask if you can go, instead of waiting unhappily for days for an invitation." or "If you explain the situation to your mother, she will probably understand". What kind of advice was that for a princess?! Her father once said that she should have Sasha for her adviser, but Marie Alice thought this was the stupidest idea she had ever heard. With this foolish advice, how could Sasha possibly advise her? As they walked along the stream, Marie Alice told him again of her unhappiness.

"All the other princesses make fun of me," she said. "They say that I am not the prettiest, cannot sew the most lovely embroidery, nor do I have the most lovely voice. The worst part is... it's all true! My family doesn't have the biggest kingdom, and the prince I am to marry isn't very good looking! Well, at least some people say so...."

Marie Alice sat down in the grass. Sasha sat down nearby. He said, "Alisa, so what if your kingdom isn't that big? These aren't the most important things in life, you know."

She glared at Sasha. "Ugh! 'Alisa', I hate when you call me that. At least, I have lovely hair. It is certainly longer and shinier than anyone else's hair. And when the sunlight comes through the window at just the right angle, it looks like gold." She played with one of her curls, seeing how it shown in the light. "Anyway," she said, "It isn't as easy as you think to be happy. I wish I were." Then, she picked up a rock and threw it at a frog on the opposite bank.

Sasha was just starting to tell Marie Alice not to throw rocks at innocent little creatures, when suddenly, before the rock even hit the ground, there was a burst of light, a loud BOOM!, and a bunch of smoke. Out of the smoke appeared an old woman dressed all in black. The old woman snatched the rock out of the air and tossed it into the stream. She looked at Marie Alice and said, "Do you really wish you were happy?"

Marie Alice jumped up and said, "Yes, I do! I'd give anything to be truly happy!"

When Sasha heard this, he shook his head sadly, for one should never use those words in the presence of a witch.

The old woman said to Marie Alice, "Would you really give anything to be happy? What if it is a difficult path? I don't think you are willing to do what it takes." With that, the old woman turned and started to walk slowly away.

Marie Alice gave a yelp and ran down the bank right into the water. She splashed her way across the stream, as it wasn't very deep, and clambered up the bank on the other side. As quickly as her wet skirts would allow, Marie Alice ran up to the old woman and threw herself at the old woman's feet. She said, "I am willing to give anything. I don't care how hard the path is. I will do it!"

Sasha, who had been watching the whole time, said, "Pf. Why do you need to give up anything? If you want to be happy, be happy."

Marie Alice ignored him and instead tugged on the old woman's apron. "Please," she said, "tell me what to do."

The old woman looked at Marie Alice for a long time. She tilted her head to one side and looked out of her right eye. Then she tilted her head to the other side and looked out of her left. Finally, she walked in a circle around Marie Alice. When she came back to where she started, the old woman said, "Well, you seem very sincere, so I will tell you how you can find true happiness. You must travel to the four corners of the world and find four magic boxes made one each of gold, silver, ivory and jade. When you have these boxes, don't open them! Bring them here. When you arrive, turn around three times to the east and say your name three... no, four times. Then, I will arrive and use my powers to grant you true happiness in exchange for the boxes."

Sasha said again to Marie Alice, "If you want to be happy, then be happy." She glared at him and turned her back. She looked back to where the old woman had been standing, but she was gone.

"If only you had kept your mouth shut," she said, "I could have found out more information! Now, I'll have to just do my best with what I have."

Marie Alice ran back home to her family's small castle and began packing her bags. Her mother came to her door and asked, "What are you doing, my dear?"

Marie Alice would not speak to her. Her mother hurried away and came back with the king. He said in his kind, deep voice, "Merry Alice, why are you packing?"

She ignored him. She was especially angry, because she hated that nickname. Finally, Sasha came to her door. He had a helmet on his head, a suitcase in one hand, and a butterfly net in the other. "Never know what to expect from these sudden journeys," he said, holding out the net to her.

Sasha didn't approve of her plan, she thought. Marie Alice glared at him. "You and your stupid advice!" she said, "After all your arguing, here you are, trying to worm your way into the deal. Well, I won't let you steal my happiness! It is mine, and I'm not going to share it with you!"

Then, she rushed out of the castle, down the steps, through the gate, and away.


	2. The First Box

Marie Alice traveled to the north, though green valleys flanked by snow-covered mountains, past clear lakes, over roads that wove between trees that were so tall she could not see the tops. She rode for a while in a coach with other travelers and told them all of how unfair her life had been. The other travelers just shook their heads and turned away to look out the windows. Eventually, she came to the end of the coach's route. The town she was in didn't look like a place that would have a magic box, so she bought a pony and rode him out of town to the north until she finally came to a little town at the end of the road. There, she lived in a little cottage. At first, people came by to talk to her, to ask her questions about what it was like to be a princess, to admire her beautiful hair and clothes, but she complained so often and glared at them so frequently that soon no more visitors came.

Marie Alice was glad to be alone. No stupid advice! No nosy questions! However, eventually, she found that she was lonely. She started to walk around town in the mornings and discovered that no one wanted to talk to her. She was angry with them, but then she started to remember how rude she had been. Marie Alice was definitely not happy now, so she decided that she needed to work harder to find a magic box. That way, she could get out of this town. She bought some seeds and started growing flowers in the garden of her cottage. When she had a nice bouquet, she brought them to her closest neighbor, a woman named Deloris, who had two small children and whose husband had been killed in a hunting accident not long ago. Marie Alice helped Deloris with the children. The children were very well behaved, and she found that she enjoyed telling them stories and playing with them.

One day, the older of the two little girls told her that there was an old man who lived by the old mill who had a magic box that granted wishes. Marie Alice didn't wait even a second! She jumped up and rushed out of the little house. She got on her pony and rode him as fast as he would go toward the old mill. The house where the old man lived wasn't hard to find. Marie Alice rushed up to the door and knocked as hard as she could. Soon, the door was opened by a funny little man with a big nose. He looked frightened at first and looked around behind Marie Alice in confusion. Then, he said, "Are you the one who pounded on my door? What do you want?"

"I have heard that you have a magic box," she said. "I need it."

The little man turned his nose up, looked at her for a moment with a scowl, and shouted, "Well, you can't have it!"

Then, he slammed the door in her face.

Marie Alice was furious! How dare he do that to her! She was a princess! Of course, as she walked back to the pony, she realized that she hadn't acted like a princess. She had acted like a very spoiled, very badly raised child. When she thought this, she realized that she had left Deloris's children all alone! She hurried back and found both children crying and the little house quite a mess. At least, they had not been hurt, she thought. She scrubbed and cleaned and sang songs and told stories. Soon, all was well again in the little house. However, Marie Alice knew that she had made some big mistakes that afternoon. She was lucky that this situation had been so easily resolved.

Two days later, Marie Alice went again to the house by the old mill. As she walked up to the door, she heard the most lovely singing she had heard in her entire life. She knew many princesses, but none of them could sing this beautifully. When the singing stopped, she knocked gently on the door. When it opened, a girl a few years older than she stood before Marie Alice. The girl had dull brown hair that had been pulled away from her face into a tight bun. She was shorter than Marie Alice and had a big nose. The girl looked at her nervously. Finally, Marie Alice said, "I was here a couple of days ago and behaved very badly to the man who lives here. I came to apologize."

She considered telling the girl about the witch and the boxes but remembered that no one seemed interested in that story. Instead she waited quietly. The girl stepped into the doorway and said, "Oh! That was you. My father said that you demanded the magic box. He was very angry and upset. I think you should probably leave. I don't want him to be upset again."

Marie Alice saw this opportunity slipping away. She tried to stay calm and said, "It is true. I was very rude, and I apologize. I do need the box, though. I will happily pay him for it. Or trade something."

The girl didn't look like she liked these ideas. She was preparing to go back inside, when Marie Alice saw the funny little man appear beside her. "Are you really sorry?" he asked.

"Yes," said Marie Alice.

"Then, maybe you can help us. Come in."

Inside, the house was neat and clean. It was a small house but clearly well cared for. The old man offered her a chair. When she was seated, he walked up to a shelf over the fireplace and picked up a silver box that was just a little bigger than his hand. He sat on a bench nearby and said, "When I was a boy, a genie gave me this box. It has granted many wishes for me, but it won't grant my most important wish. I have wished many times that my daughter would find a good husband. However, no suitors come. I want very much to see my grandchildren before I die."

Marie Alice was going to tell the girl how much better it was not already to be engaged to a not very attractive prince. However, looking at the sad girl and the disappointed father, she thought that perhaps this was not the best thing to say. Instead, she went over in her mind everything she knew about the girl, the town, and finding husbands. Even though she was already engaged, she still had heard other girls talk about finding husbands for many years, so she thought that perhaps she could help. She said to the girl's father, "If I find a husband for your daughter, will you give me the magic box?"

Immediately, he said, "Yes! I would give anything to see my daughter married."

"Well, then," Marie Alice said, "I will get to work right away!"

Over the next month, she did three things: first, she asked Deloris to spread the news around town that Marie Alice was a princess from a far-off kingdom who had come to the area to find the girl with the most lovely voice. A contest would be held soon, and all the girls in the area were encouraged to compete. Second, she bought a wagon and spent a great deal of time preparing decorations for it and the pony. Lastly, she taught the girl, whose name was Abigail, to dress and act a little more like a princess.

On the day of the contest, Marie Alice arrived very early in the central square of the little town. She set up her wagon and the decorated pony. Delores and her children arrive a little later, and they all decorated the little square with flowers and ribbons. At noon, people started to arrive. Marie Alice rode the pony home and took a bath. After a couple of hours, there were many people in the town square - most were mainly interested in seeing a princess. However, they were all hot and tired and a bit grumpy, as the princess had not arrived. Finally, a funny little man with a big nose appeared at the entrance to the square and blew on a trumpet. He wasn't very good at playing the trumpet, but before anyone could notice, he said, "I present Princess Marie Alice who has come from the south to find the girl with the most beautiful voice. Make way!"

The crowd drew back, and a little aisle opened up. And there was Marie Alice on her little pony. She was wearing very fancy clothing, and her beautiful hair was curled perfectly and put up in combs. She wasn't the prettiest girl, but she did look like a princess, as she scowled at everyone. Marie Alice rode up to the pretty little wagon. She held out her hand, and a man helped her off the pony. Then, she walked up the stairs into the wagon. "I am from a kingdom in the south," she said to the crowd. "One day as I was walking, I met an old woman sitting by a stream and singing. My friend Sasha, who was with me at the time, was in a bad mood and told her that she had a terrible voice. She immediately changed him into a seashell! The only way that he can be changed back now is for me to find the girl with the most beautiful voice in all the land. Once the song touches the shell, the curse will be broken and he will turn back into himself in two days. This is why I have come. However, because I am a princess, I felt that it is only fair to also give a prize to the one with the most beautiful voice. I will give the winner this beautiful necklace. It is made from pearls found in clear blue waters far from here. The gold is so pure that it is nearly white. Whoever sees this necklace will know that the girl who wears it has both the most beautiful voice and the most pure soul."

Marie Alice worried a little as she gave this speech that not all of it made sense. Sasha would have had better ideas, but she was still mad and didn't want to think about him. The crowd didn't seem to care that the speech didn't make a lot of sense, though. They cheered happily when she finished. After that, Marie Alice asked that all the girls who wanted to compete to step forward. There were eighteen girls, but the one who stood out was Abigail, the girl whose father had the box. Abigail was both a very kind girl and quite smart, and she had followed Marie Alice's instructions on how to act like a princess quite well. While she didn't scowl at anyone (she felt that was too rude), Abigail looked happy, confident, and at ease. She wore a simple dress, but it looked very nice on her, especially with her long hair and pleasant smile. The other girls were made more nervous by Abigail's confidence. Marie Alice called them up one at a time to the wagon and asked them to sing. Some girls sung well. Some girls sung less well. Marie Alice thanked each one, though, for her effort. Finally, Marie Alice called Abigail to come up. Abigail walked gracefully, smiled at the crowd, and then sung a beautiful song of home and children and love. The beauty of her voice, her confidence and grace, and the promise of a happy home caused more than one young man to look at Abigail with interest. Before Marie Alice even had a chance to declare the winner, the crowd began cheering for Abigail. Marie Alice put the necklace around Abigail's neck, and then two white horses were harnessed to the wagon and a parade wound its way through the town with Abigail at the front. (Because Abigail was a very kind girl, she soon convinced the people around the wagon to help the other girls who sang in the contest up onto the wagon too. As the wagon rounded a curve and went out of sight, Marie Alice could see all the girls smiling happily.)

The town square was empty, except for Marie Alice and Abigail's father. He approached her and said, "You have done better than your word. You have made my sad daughter very happy. She will have no trouble finding a husband after this, and she won't just have to take the first offer. I am so proud of her, and I owe you an apology. I thought you were just a rude, selfish princess, but you saw the beauty in my daughter when no one else did. Thank you." And with that, he handed her the silver box.

Now that she had the silver box in her hands, Marie Alice didn't know what to say. Abigail's father had said some very kind words that Marie Alice was afraid weren't true. Instead of answering, she just smiled. Then, she went back to her little cottage, she tied a silver ribbon around the box, because the witch had said not to open it, put it in her traveling case, and packed her things. When she left early the next morning, she said goodbye to Delores and the children, and then rode out of town on her pony. She tried not to think of other friends that she had left behind.


	3. The Second Box

Marie Alice traveled to the south in a carriage filled with four very unhappy members of a family on the way to a funeral and an old man who snored loudly and smelled of fish and old shoes. As they passed the road that led to her kingdom, Marie Alice felt a little pang of loneliness, but she tried as hard as she could to crush it in her heart. Instead, she thought of all the things that anyone had ever done to hurt her, and how happy she would be when she finally brought back the boxes. As the carriage went up, up, up over the mountains, it passed through a very dry land with small, stunted trees and wide swaths where a fire had passed. Some black trunks of the trees were left, but all around there was nothing else - just black, bare earth.

On the other side of the mountains, the road wound down through a very lush and green country. Almost every hour a rainstorm swept over the little carriage. As they went down into the valley, the weather became warmer, and finally the sun came out. They drove on, and the tumbling little stream that had run beside them became a wide river, flowing past farms where cows looked up from the grass at the carriage whizzing past. Every once in a while, they would reach a tiny town, where mail, packages or passengers would be bundled onto the carriage. Finally, the mourning family climbed out in a little town where everyone seemed to be related (Marie Alice couldn't help but notice that everyone who walked by the carriage had the same light hair, dark eyes, short and round shape, and very large noses). Everyone was dressed in black there, and Marie Alice was glad to leave the air of misery behind.

The carriage stopped at night and traveled during the day for quite a distance. Finally, it pulled up in a little town in front of a tiny wooden post office that looked ready to fall down at any moment. The driver climbed down, opened the door to the carriage, and said, "This is the last stop."

Marie Alice thought that this must be where she would find the next box. She climbed down, paid the driver, and looked around. The main street of the town wasn't very long, and from where she stood, Marie Alice could see that it was on a hill looking out over the sea. She had never been to the seashore before, and the great pounding waves made her feel small. Looking away, she saw that there was a little hotel not far from the crumbling post office, so she walked that way. The coach driver had left her bags on the hotel steps, so she dragged them in. The tall, thin man behind the desk nodded at her politely. "You look like you have traveled quite a ways," he said.

Not sure if that was a comment on how dusty and rumpled she was, Marie Alice decided to be friendly and said, "Yes, I have come from far to the North."

"Oh, are you a traveling saleswoman?" the man at the desk asked.

"Not at all," Marie Alice replied. "I am a princess."

The desk clerk's face lit up when she said this. "Then you will want the best room! The best food! New clothing!"

Marie Alice thought that he had too many ideas about princesses. She could not possibly afford those things. So, she held up a hand and said, "When I am away from home, I choose to live more simply. I need only a regular room and will eat what everyone else does."

The clerk looked less happy, but he opened his guest book and chose a room for her.

Marie Alice spent days wandering around the town, trying to figure out where the magic box was hidden. She began to worry about money, so she started advertising that she could do mending and other sewing. The clerk at the desk gave her disapproving looks after she started this, but Marie Alice was able to make enough money that she didn't have to spent too much of what she had brought from home. She made friends with the women around town, since she guessed that would be the best way to find out about a magic box. However, no one talked about this kind of thing at all. They mainly talked about who would marry whom and which farmer from up the river would make the most money this season. One day, months and months after Marie Alice had arrived, she was sitting in front of the post office with a girl named Laura and a fat old dog named Elmer. A short old woman who smelled like green onions and who wore a huge gray shawl walked inside. Laura made a strange sign with her hand. When Marie Alice asked about it, Laura said that the woman was a witch who lived high up in a tree outside of town.

A witch who lived in a tree! Of course, she would be the one who would have the magic box. Marie Alice calmed her emotions and said, "You know, I've always wanted to see a house in a tree. Where I lived, we didn't have anything like that, but there were stories about such things." This wasn't really true. None of the other princesses cared about things like that, so Marie Alice hadn't thought they could possibly be important. Now, though, she did start to wonder about how someone would put a house in a tree.... Would it have a different room on each branch? Would the witch use a ladder to get to her front door?

Laura smiled, and her eyebrows danced around at the prospect of spreading some gossip. She leaned over to Marie Alice and said, "Well, I've seen it a couple times. If you walk away from town towards the river, you can see it from the road. It is the biggest tree for miles!" Laura continued telling stories about all the weird and improper things the witch had done. It was clear that Laura didn't like the witch, but Marie Alice thought she actually sounded pretty interesting. Maybe a little, even, like her friend Sasha....

When Laura stopped to take a breath, Marie Alice stood up and thanked her for the interesting conversation. Then, she turned her back on the town and started walking down the road towards the river. It was the only road in town, and it led to the bridge over the river that every carriage had to cross. Once a week, a carriage would roll in, but other than that, there was never much traffic. Marie Alice passed a cow, three chickens who were rolling in the dust at the side of the road, and a little boy who told her and the cow - looking very seriously at each of them - that his mother had sent him to town for some sugar. Marie Alice nodded very seriously back at the boy but thought that his mother probably was waiting by the door right now with a half-finished cake, waiting for her sugar.

When she was halfway to the river, Marie Alice saw the tree. It was huge! The leaves were so densely packed that she couldn't see if there was a house in it or not, but it was almost twice as big as any other tree in the area. Not being sure what to do, Marie Alice decided to just walk towards the tree. The grass along the road was tall, and the ground was uneven. However, she made her way through far enough to find the true path, and after that it was much easier going.

The path wound through the tall grass, and there were times when a little hill rose up ahead of her and the grass blocked out everything but the sky. Usually, though, the huge tree was in sight, growing taller as she got closer. Marie Alice walked for what seemed about an hour, before she finally arrived at the foot of the tree. She was quite impressed with the house she saw there. The witch didn't need a ladder to get to it. The tree seemed to kneel down with one strong bow close enough to the ground that it could be reached by a short set of stairs. The stairs climbed from branch to branch, going up just as high as Marie Alice could reach to a little porch on the witch's doorstep. She couldn't resist going up to see a little more, so she climbed up, up, up to the witch's front door. As she turned around to look, she found that there were breaks in the tree's canopy, so that in one direction, she could see the long, dark line of trees along the river. In another, she could see a little bit of pale sand and the ocean that met the horizon. And there, before the ocean, was the little town. It looked so small. From here, Marie Alice thought, it would be hard to take their ideas of proper behavior very seriously.

Marie Alice turned back to the door. She didn't think there was any point in knocking, as surely the witch was still back in town... or at least still walking home. Looking out toward the river, she didn't see anyone walking through the tall grass. There was a window near the door, and Marie Alice thought that if she stepped out a little onto a branch, she could probably see in. She put her foot out and moved carefully onto the branch. Her shoes were just awful for climbing. They looked nice and were even kind of comfortable to walk in, but they were too smooth and hard to help with standing on a branch. Marie Alice was going to head back to the little porch and take them off when something inside the house caught her eye through the window. Had she seen the magic box? Marie Alice grabbed a handful of leaves in one hand and the edge of the window in the other. She steadied herself and moved out a little bit further... and a little further. Finally, she was able to really see through the window. On a high shelf, there was a white box. It looked heavy, and Marie Alice guessed that it was made of ivory. Her heart pounded in her chest! Soon, she would have what she really wanted - happiness! But first, she needed that box.

The box was surrounded on the shelf by books, drying herbs, an animal skull, and a jar with yellow liquid in it. There were some things floating in the liquid. Marie Alice thought that maybe the shapes were turning. She moved closer to the window to see what they were. As she moved, something rose up on the other side of the window. Marie Alice was so startled that she slipped and fell.

She reached out and grabbed the windowsill. It was small and smooth, though, so she didn't have much to hold on to. She tried to push herself backwards, but that didn't seem to work. Finally, she hooked her foot around the branch behind her and used it to pull herself back. The branch wasn't all that wide, and Marie Alice had never climbed a tree before. So, as she tried to move back onto the branch, she didn't move quickly enough, and - woosh! - she found herself hanging upside down from the big branch.

Above her, Marie Alice heard a door open. "Excuse me, but why are you playing in my tree?" a somewhat displeased voice asked.

Marie Alice knew better than to demand the box. She had learned her lesson about being rude and making demands. She was tempted to lie and come up with some fancy story... but she wasn't so good at that. Besides, her father had told her that it was important to tell the truth, even if it wasn't pleasant. So, Marie Alice pulled herself up so that her arms and legs were wrapped around the branch. She could see the woman now, and it was definitely the short old woman from the post office. Marie Alice looked her in the eye and said, "I have come from a country to the north on a quest. A witch sent me to the four corners of the world to find four magic boxes."

"Why?" asked the old woman.

Marie Alice took a deep breath and began to tell her story. The old woman started to look bored and disapproving after only a minute. Also, Marie Alice's head was starting to hurt from hanging upside down. Surely everyone wants to be happy, Marie Alice thought, so she couldn't understand why the old woman looked so dour. Maybe she was jealous, like Sasha. It was hard to think of Sasha being jealous, since he had always been kind to her. However, it didn't really matter. What mattered was that she could hear her blood pounding in her head. She wasn't sure where she was in the story, but from the look on the old woman's face, it didn't really matter. So, she said, "And so I decided to go on the quest."

With her arms firmly wrapped around the branch, Marie Alice let go of the branch with her feet and lowered them down. She really wasn't that far from the ground and was able to stand up without even having to let go of the branch. When she finally felt a little more normal, Marie Alice walked out from under the branch, up the steps, and stood in front of the old woman. She didn't know what to say, so she didn't say anything. The old woman looked at her and scowled. She reminded Marie Alice of her geometry teacher, and she felt a little guilty, because she had completely ignored her studies ever since she left home.

The old woman asked, "You are really a princess?"

"Yes," replied Marie Alice, showing the old woman her golden hair.

"Can you do embroidery?"

Marie Alice didn't like the sound of that. Her embroidery wasn't very good, but technically, she could do it. And her sewing had gotten a lot better over the last few months. So, Marie Alice said, "Yes."

"When I was young," the old woman said, "I had a dream. I was standing on top of a cliff looking over the ocean. The wind blew through my hair, and my cloak billowed behind me. The cloak was dark and shimmering, and it was embroidered with all the constellations of the night sky. I have searched all my life for this cloak, but I cannot buy one, and no one here can make one. If you make this cloak for me, I will give you a magic box in return."

The old woman didn't wait for Marie Alice to speak. She turned and went into her house. Before Marie Alice even could decide what to say, the door was firmly closed. Standing there on the old woman's front porch seemed foolish, so Marie Alice decided to walk back to town.

As she walked, Marie Alice frowned. She had never seen a cloak like this, but she did know about very nice clothes. They took a lot of time and money to make. She didn't know anything at all about the constellations of the night sky. Sometimes, the princesses used to play a game where a girl would cover her eyes and the others would spin her around. Then, when she was too dizzy to stand, she would open her eyes and point to the first star she saw. That star was supposed to direct her to the prince of her dreams. This wasn't going to help her, she thought.

Later that night, Marie Alice went up onto a hill that looked out over the ocean. She looked up at the stars. There were just too many! Tears rolled down her cheeks as she thought of trying to put them all on a cloak. She didn't even know where to start. As she stood looking up, a star shot across the sky... and then another followed! Marie Alice gasped. Was it a sign?

A soft voice behind her said, "They are lovely, aren't they?"

Marie Alice turned around and saw a boring-looking man with glasses. She had seen him in town a few times but decided quickly that he was about as interesting as a smelly old shoe. Now, he was here interrupting her! Marie Alice was getting ready to scowl at him and stomp away, when she noticed that he was carrying a metal tube of some kind. She had never seen anything like it, so she said, "What is that tube?" It was only after the words came out of her mouth that she realized how rude she sounded. Before the man could get the wrong idea, she continued, "I was so surprised when I saw the flying stars. I didn't expect them at all." In the moment she said this, another star streaked across the sky, and Marie Alice realized that he was right. "Yes, they are lovely," she said.

The man looked a little confused by Marie Alice's conversation, but after a moment, he decided to answer her first question. He said, "This is a telescope. I use it to look at the stars."

"Why?" Marie Alice asked.

"Because the stars are more than they seem. Some stay still. Some move across the sky a little every night. Some fly across the sky like the ones we saw tonight." The man set up a stand for the telescope and said, "Come here and look. You think you know the moon, right? What do you think now?"

Marie Alice looked through the telescope, and there was the moon. But, it wasn't the moon that she expected to see. It was huge! And there were big open plains and lots of little circles like the splashes of raindrops on water. Marie Alice thought that Sasha would love to see this. It was so interesting! He always liked looking at familiar things in a new way.

"That is amazing!" Marie Alice said to him. "Can you show me more?"

And in this way, Marie Alice and the man with the soft voice spent the evening looking at the sky.

The next day, he came to visit her, and in the evening, they went out again to look at the sky and watch the stars come out. Marie Alice really enjoyed having such an interesting friend, although being around him reminded her of Sasha. She had enjoyed his company, though she had never told him so. The man with the soft voice was named Arnold, and he worked for the farmers, helping them sell what they grew. Not long after the night with the shooting stars, Marie Alice asked Arnold, "Could you teach me all the constellations of the sky?"

Arnold was very friendly, and every time they went out, he would point out the constellations and other interesting objects in the sky.

Marie Alice no longer felt like crying when she thought about making the cloak, although she knew that there was still a lot of work to be done. First, she needed the fabric. The old woman didn't want a heavy cloak, like the kind that you would wear in winter. She wanted something soft and light - but no too light. Marie Alice had to wait for a month and a half before a traveling salesman, who sold the most beautiful silk satin, came to town. The old woman hadn't said anything about paying for the materials, so Marie Alice had to buy the silk, and a cloak takes a lot of fabric. She worried after that about having enough money - not just to stay where she was and eat, but also to go to the next place she was to find a box. A quest was a pretty expensive thing, she found.

Once she had the silk, Marie Alice had to dye it so that it looked like the night sky. She felt that she was pretty lucky in this part. When you look at the sky at night, it isn't just one color of dark. There are places that are lighter, and there are places that are darker. Marie Alice had tried to dye a dress once with Sasha, and she knew that it was very hard to get it all the same. Some places are light, while some are dark. Still she was nervous, since the fabric was so expensive and had taken so long to find. So, she found a dressmaker to help her. Together, they worked on the dyeing and the fitting. The fitting part was difficult, because if it wasn't right, it would choke the old woman when she threw it back over her shoulders or cover her face so completely that she couldn't see when the hood was up. It was so much work! Finally, though, the cloak was ready to be embroidered.

At least, Marie Alice thought, Arnold had taught her about the constellations. She could go outside at night and pick them out easily. One night while they were out walking together, Arnold asked Marie Alice about the cloak. He knew that she had been working on it for a very long time and that the embroidery was almost done. However, Marie Alice hadn't told him about her quest. She liked walking with him and didn't want him to know that she would be going away soon. Marie Alice wasn't thinking about that now, though. She was thinking about the hills, the sea, and the sky. So, when he asked, she said, "Well, you know, I'll be done with it soon. Then, I'll give it to the old woman, she'll give me the box, and then I'll finally take the coach to the east. Far to the east."

Marie Alice didn't even notice that Arnold was no longer walking with her. She looked up, and he wasn't there. Looking back, she saw him just standing and looking at her. "You will leave?" he asked.

Marie Alice nodded.

"But we talked about going to see the flower festival in the spring," he said.

"Well, I didn't know how long it would take to make the cloak," Marie Alice replied.

Arnold looked at her for a moment and then turned and walked away. Marie Alice let him go. She was a princess and wasn't going to chase after some man. She walked down to the sea and then back to her room at the hotel, where she waited.

For three days, Marie Alice waited Arnold to visit her, but he never came. She finished the cloak. After all the time she had spent working on it, her embroidery skills were much better, and the cloak was very lovely. Marie Alice didn't really care, though. Although she didn't want to admit it, she was upset about what had happened with Arnold. She reminded herself about her quest and her happiness. Surely, this was one of the sacrifices she had to make to be happy.

Marie Alice took the cloak to the old woman, who liked it very much. From inside her house in the tree, the old woman brought a box carved from an ivory stone. Marie Alice knew that this was the end of her time in the little town and knew that she should be happy to leave. However, she just wondered where Arnold was. Still, she thanked the old woman and took the box, tying a white ribbon around it and putting it into a padded bag to protect it.

Marie Alice walked down the steps from the house in the tree and through the field on the little path that led to the road. She put one foot in front of the other, but her mind wasn't on her steps. She walked more and more slowly, until finally she was just standing in the field. She could see the road, but the bag on her shoulder felt so heavy and she couldn't move her arms or legs. The tall grass danced around her, and Marie Alice stood there. Flies buzzed at her eyes, and she stood there. Finally, she heard the familiar sound of the coach coming over the bridge and realized that if she didn't want to wait another week to leave, that she had to hurry back to town.

After her first experience in the tree house, Marie Alice had bought a pair of shoes that none of the princesses she knew would ever have worn. They weren't fancy. They didn't have bows or lace or feathers. They were brown. They were also very comfortable, and as she ran after the carriage, Marie Alice was very glad she had bought them. She came to her hotel gasping for breath. The clerk behind the counter told her that a young man had come to see her.

"Well, where is he?" Marie Alice said.

"I guess he left," the man replied with a little shrug.

It was probably Arnold, Marie Alice thought. She also knew that if she didn't pack right away, then she wouldn't be able to catch the coach. She felt a painful twist in her chest, but she ignored it. She said to the clerk, "I will be leaving on the coach. Please prepare my final bill and tell the coachman that I'll be there in five minutes." Then, she marched up the stairs to her room.

Packing took longer than five minutes, but Marie Alice arrived before the coach left. She knew that she was late, though, because the coachman looked unhappy. He wasn't very gentle when he loaded her case, but she gave him her hardest glare, and he was more careful when he tied it down to the roof. Marie Alice climbed into the coach with the other passengers. It was hot in the little coach, and Marie Alice tried to open the dirty little window next to her, but it was stuck shut. She peered through it, trying to see if Arnold was outside on the street somewhere. She didn't see him. She tried to open the window again, without luck. The coach driver climbed up onto his seat, and Marie Alice wanted to call to him to wait. Really, though, there was no reason. Arnold was gone. 

As the coach started moving, Marie Alice felt that pain in her chest again. The coach rattled past the last buildings in town. As it did, it hit a bump, and the window next to Marie Alice dropped open. There, not more than five feet away, was Arnold! Marie Alice called to him. He looked up. She was shocked at how sick he looked. His eyes were surrounded by dark circles, and he looked very pale. He raised his hand and shouted something to her, but Marie Alice couldn't hear over the sound of the coach wheels. She called to the driver to stop, but either he didn't hear or he was ignoring her. The little coach rumbled over the bridge. Marie Alice watched the road behind them until her neck hurt and she felt sick. Finally, she turned around faced forwards. The town by the sea was already far behind.


	4. The Third Box

The carriage wound its way up out of the valley back into the mountains. Marie Alice remembered this part of the trip from her journey south. When the carriage passed the turn-off that would have taken her back home, she wondered what was going on there. She asked the other passengers, but no one knew anything. It was a small kingdom, after all, and most hadn't even been there. The very tall man who sat across from her had been there once, but it was very long ago and just for a few days. 

Days passed, and eventually the carriage turned off the main road and headed east. There were long rows of mountains, lined up like waves that would break on a purple stone shore. While the mountains were very majestic, all the winding roads made Marie Alice a little sick. She closed her eyes and slept. When she woke, the carriage was traveling through fields of golden grain. Marie Alice could see the wind swirling and twisting patterns on the fields, as though it was dancing. The land was flatter now than she had ever seen it. There wasn't even a hill, and the grain field stretched to the horizon.

When the carriage came to a wide, wide river, Marie Alice felt that this must be her destination. She signaled to the driver. He stopped by a little path that led into some trees along the bank. There was an old stand beside the path that looked like it had been used for selling things. It looked sad, like someone had just given up on it. She pointed to the path and asked the driver, "Does this go to a town?"

"Yes," he said, "but I don't know why you'd want to go there."

Marie Alice just smiled and picked up her suitcase. The path followed the river, going through a thicket, over a hill, and across a little bridge. Ahead of her, Marie Alice spied the top of a building. She hurried forward and soon came to a wide open area surrounded by buildings. There weren't a lot of buildings, and Marie Alice could tell that many of them weren't in very good shape. Also, there were no people at all around. There was no inn that she could see... no post office... no town hall. There was one building that had a door open, so she went over to that.

The dust from the gray street had blown into little drifts against the building. Marie Alice went up to the door. It was a heavy door for such a small town. Marie Alice was surprised, because she guessed that everyone here probably knew each other - or maybe they were even all related. She looked inside the building. There were some tables and chairs, like in a restaurant; a counter with all kinds of tools on the wall behind it and a thousand little drawers; plus, there was a bunch of boxes of fruit, vegetables, and other food. Maybe this was the only business in town, Marie Alice thought, and they just sold everything here.

A woman was sweeping the floor. She looked as gray and dry as the dust. Marie Alice came a little closer, and the woman looked up. She gave a little cry and jumped back. Marie Alice looked around, trying to see if there were bandits or thieves getting ready to attack, but there was no one. 

"I'm sorry if I startled you," Marie Alice said. "I'm a traveler, and I was looking for a place to stay."

"Why would you want to stay here?" the woman asked. Before Marie Alice could reply, she continued, "Certainly, I can't help. Mr. Bristol will come in for dinner in a little while, and he will know what to do."

The woman didn't even seem to be really talking to Marie Alice. She seemed to just be mumbling these words to herself, and without warning or looking again at Marie Alice, the woman hurried through a swinging door and was gone.

Marie Alice felt a little uncomfortable about someone who would "know what to do." It sounded like she was a terrible and embarrassing case of lice that needed to be gotten rid of very quickly. On the other hand, she had no choice but to wait, so she sat down at one of the empty tables and waited.

In the town by the sea, Marie Alice had spent a lot of time sitting around, but she usually had someone to talk to or some sewing to work on. Here, she had nothing. She studied all the things for sale and the prices, she looked around the restaurant, she even counted the nails in the floor. Eventually, though, she just put her head down on the table and slept. If you had asked her if she was tired, she would have said, "No." Nevertheless, she slept until the sound of voices - a man's and a woman's - woke her. They were talking about her.

"Who is she?" the man asked, in a very booming voice.

"I don't know," answered the woman.

"What does she want?" the man asked.

"I don't know," the woman said again.

"What did you tell her?" the man said.

Marie Alice found this conversation quite annoying, so she said, "She said that I should wait here for Mr. Bristol. My name is Marie Alice, and I am a traveler. I'm looking for a place to stay."

The man turned to look at her. He was very tall with black hair that was turning gray. He had very bushy eyebrows and so much hair on his ears that they seemed furry. He looked at her, and his eyes grew narrow. "Why are you here?" he said.

She had promised herself that she would not be so rude, but this man and all his questions... Marie Alice couldn't think of a polite answer, so she said, "Because this is where the carriage let me off."

The man accepted this answer and nodded. "Well," he said in this booming voice, "there is no inn here."

Really! Marie Alice thought to herself, what is wrong with these people?!? That was obvious.

Instead of glaring at him, though, Marie Alice said, "I didn't see one on the way into town."

The man, who Marie Alice guessed was Mr. Bristol, finally said, "I'm hungry. Let's have dinner."

He pointed to a table near a big window and started walking to it. Marie Alice followed. They sat down, and the gray woman brought them bread and tea. It was as though the tea produced a miracle in the man. Suddenly, he started talking about the history of the little town. The gray woman brought salads, and he talked about the man who built the first houses. She brought soup, and he talked about the men who worked on the river. She brought grilled meat and rice, and he talked about the building of the bridge. She brought sliced fruit and sweet cakes, and he talked about the town's troubles. And finally, she brought more tea, and he told Marie Alice about the ghosts. By the time he was done, the sun was setting, and little birds called to each other from the trees, signaling about the coming of night.

The story of the town's history was very long, but basically Mr. Bristol had told Marie Alice that it had been built a long time ago to take people across the river, because there was no bridge. This is why the town was named Crossingtown. The people of the town were in charge of the barges that crossed the river, and for a while, the town was very prosperous. There was an inn, a stable for the animals of travelers, and even a gift shop. However, eventually, engineers came to build a bridge. The people of the town helped to build the bridge, but when they were done, they found that no one wanted to stop in their little town anymore. Many people left to go to other towns where there was more work. However, the little town built a little stand by the road to sell food and drinks to travelers. The reason that Marie Alice hadn't seen anyone there was that ghosts came to the town at night and started taking people and things. Even one of the barges disappeared! Eventually, the remaining people in the town just gave up. They let the stand by the road fall apart and just waited for the ghosts to take them too.

Marie Alice didn't think that it made any sense at all to just sit and wait to disappear. However, even she was willing to admit that it was hard to fight ghosts. Since she was already there, she felt that she should at least try to find a magic box. She really didn't want to spend the rest of her life searching for boxes. After all, if she was going to be happy, she wanted to live long enough to enjoy her happiness. So, she said, "I need a place to stay."

It was as if Mr. Bristol was a toy whose spring had wound down. He slouched down and said in a voice just above a whisper, "Well, I don't know. It isn't safe."

The gray woman came back to the table and said, "You need to hurry home. It is getting dark."

"She needs a place to stay," Mr. Bristol said.

"Send her to the Garson house. Now, hurry! I need to lock up!" The gray woman nearly pushed them out the door. Marie Alice thought that the town didn't need ghosts. These people were rude enough to ensure that no one would ever want to visit. Still, she followed Mr. Bristol down the road. He was moving quickly now, looking around with darting eyes. The weather was turning cool, and Marie Alice thought that she would certainly need some heavier clothes. Leaves swirled around her feet and fluttered down from the trees overhead. Soon, they came to a very sweet looking little cottage. Above it towered a huge maple tree, which had dropped a thick layer of leaves over the house and the yard in front of it. Mr. Bristol pointed at the house but didn't stop walking. He called over his shoulder, "Be sure to lock the door and shutter all the windows." He kept walking and soon disappeared into the night.

Marie Alice walked through a little gate and was just able to make out a path leading to the front door under a carpet of leaves. The cottage was painted white with dark trim. The front door was decorated in different shades, but it was too dark for Marie Alice to tell what color it was. With all the fear and suspicion in the little town, she was surprised that the front door was unlocked. The doorknob turned stiffly, and she guessed that it hadn't been opened in a while. Inside, the cottage smelled like dust and cedar. Marie Alice walked around, looking at the bare walls of the front room in the fading light. She had seen a key on the mantle over the fireplace, so she walked back into the main room and picked it up. As she did so, Marie Alice heard a sound outside. At least, she thought she did. She crouched down and crept over to a window. Outside, there were four men standing by the gate. They looked strong, like workmen. They weren't wearing uniforms, so Marie Alice didn't think they were soldiers. They did look very confident, though. One left the group and started walking towards the front door of the cottage.

One of her favorite games with Sasha had been exploring her family's little castle and finding all the hidden and forgotten places. Mostly they were just dusty attics or closets of old coats. However, they had found treasures too, like a tea set, albums of old photos, and a collection of tiny skeletons of mice, birds and snakes. Sometimes, it was just fun to hide. She and Sasha had sneaked around the castle and hid in all kinds of places, listening to the cook or the stable hands or the guards. As the man came up the walk, Marie Alice moved as quickly and quietly as she could back towards the fireplace. It wasn't very large, but she thought it might be big enough to hide her. There was a grating on the bottom, though, full of ashes, and Marie Alice wasn't sure if she should try to stand on it. Sasha always had good advice on how to avoid making noise, and she thought he would vote against standing on the grating. Quickly, she picked the grating up and squeezed into the fireplace. It was dusty and sooty, and Marie Alice could feel her allergies starting to complain. She tried holding her breath and then tried only breathing through her mouth. From just outside the door she heard the sound of a footstep. Marie Alice looked down and noticed that her skirt was sticking out the fireplace. She wanted to pull it in, but just then the front door opened. She was so scared that she couldn't move.

"Empty", a man's voice said, and the door closed again.

Was it over? Marie Alice waited for a few minutes but didn't hear any other sound. That was it? She was surprised. It was much easier than she had expected. Of course, the house was unlocked, and if someone had been living here, the door would have been locked and the windows sealed up. It was also really good that she hadn't moved her skirt at the last minute. Sasha always said that moving or looking at someone was more likely to give you away than just sitting still and listening.

Marie Alice went back to the window. The men were gone. She tried looking up and down the little road, but it was so dark that she couldn't see anyone.

It had always been much easier for Marie Alice and Sasha to hide when no one was trying to find them. You had to be really obvious to get caught. And so it seemed much smarter to keep the little house just as it had been. However, while it made sense, it didn't seem like it was going to be very comfortable, especially as the weather got colder. Marie Alice thought that the first thing to do was to look around the little house and find all the places she could possibly hide. Also, she hoped she could at least find some blankets and maybe even a pillow.

Her eyes had adjusted to the dark, but there were a lot of trees near the house and the night was cloudy that it was very difficult to see at all. Marie Alice was a little scared as she explored. Sasha had always been very kind to her when she was afraid of the dark, and once he admitted that sometimes he was afraid of the dark too. The house would be no different if the light was on, and now that she thought about it, the light would actually be dangerous. So, she crept around the front room, trying to figure out what she was looking at. There were two windows and a fireplace on one wall. There was a corner, a wall with no windows... and then a door. She took a deep breath and opened it. No monsters. Just a bathroom. There was another corner, and then another door. This one opened into a bedroom. She close the door for the moment and went towards the back of the house, where there was a kitchen along the back wall of the big front room. There was even a small table with three stools.

Having explored the front room, Marie Alice went back to the bedroom. She went inside and closed the door behind her. There was only one window, but it was too dark outside to see anything besides shapes. There was no bed here. No blankets. She was just about to go back to the front room to search the bathroom for towels and the kitchen for food, when she remembered that the cottage had a peaked roof, and peaked roofs usually meant an attic. She couldn't really see much of the ceiling, so she slipped back out into the main room to get a stool. In the bedroom, she ran her hand over the ceiling, starting in the corner by the door and working her way around. Just a few feet away, she felt what she had been looking for, a piece of wood attached to the ceiling. She had to move the stool a few times, but she was able to feel her way around the wooden cover until she found a cord that was hanging down. She pulled on it, but nothing happened. She pulled again and again. Finally, she stepped off the stool and by putting all her weight on the cord, she was able to pull it down a little. There was a loud creaking noise that she was sure everyone in town could hear. Her heart pounded in her chest. She stood there in the middle of the bedroom and waited. She didn't hear any noises outside. No one opened the door. Finally, after a few minutes, she guessed that no one was going to come after her, so she looked back at the wooden cover and the cord. The cover had opened, and there was a ladder built into the top part. From the stool, she could reach it.

The cover creaked a lot as she climbed. When she got to the top, she could tell that she wasn't in an empty room. A tiny window let in enough light for her to see that the attic went across the whole top of the house. She wouldn't be able to stand even in the middle, but she wasn't upset about crawling around. There were shapes all around her, and she had to be very careful not to knock anything over as she crawled to the section where there was more light. When she could see a little better, she found that there were mainly boxes, but also some furniture, a suitcase, a tea kettle with a broken handle, an old broom, and dozens of other things. Marie Alice opened three or four boxes and was able to find some old blankets and towels, plus a box that had nothing but glass jars in it. She could see that there were things floating in a liquid in the jars. With luck, this meant she would have preserved fruit or vegetables to snack on. The jars reminded her a little of the jars she had seen at the witch's house, though, and she definitely didn't want to open them until she was sure about what was in them.

After Marie Alice made a little nest for herself from the blankets and towels she had found, she realized that she could hear the wind blowing from the back of the attic. The last of the light was fading, and she thought that she had better hurry. If there was a hole in the roof or a window was open, she wanted to know about it, so she crawled back through the darkness towards the sound. When the wind noise was coming from right ahead of her, she reached out her hand. There was a wooden grating. As she felt around it, the grating popped off and fell away from her. She heard it land below, but it wasn't a very loud crash, so she guessed it wasn't broken. Ahead of her, she could just make out some limbs of a tree and the night sky.

Leaning forward, Marie Alice looked down from the attic. Below her was only blackness. Above, the sky was filled with stars, and against them, she could see the dark shape of the roof and the branches of the tree. She was cold. It didn't seem like she would be able to stay warm in the attic with this big hole open. She thought that maybe just for this one night she could put a lot of blankets over her, but there were problems with this plan. If she waited until daytime, then if the "ghosts" had spies in town, they would see her, and then the ghosts would know she was living in the house. If she waited until people went inside for the night, then the ghosts might be walking around. So, it seemed like she should really do whatever work she needed to do on the house very late at night.

Right now, Marie Alice needed to find a way to get into and out of the house without anyone seeing or hearing, and she had to replace the screen. The tree seemed like the best choice for getting into and out of the house. Marie Alice wasn't great at climbing trees even during the daytime. However, she had a good, sturdy pair of boots, so she was a little less likely too fall. Also, of course, she could practice to get better. Maybe if she practiced climbing the tree at night, she would be good enough at it that she could get into or out of the attic quickly in an emergency. She and Sasha had loved hearing stories about heroes who had to train for years to be good enough to complete their quest. Marie Alice felt sure that she too could do some training... although not for years. That would be a little too much.

First, it probably would make sense to get the wooden screen. Since the ladder to the bedroom was still open, she crawled back into the attic. Marie Alice climbed down the ladder, went through the house, and out the front door. The starlight was just bright enough for her to make out shapes. She went around to the back of the house, which was surrounded by trees and tall bushes. The whole place was very overgrown, and she had to wade through the tall grass. When she was under the window, it took her about ten minutes to finally find the wooden screen where it had fallen behind a small, prickly shrub. She was pretty muddy by the time she got back to the front door, so she took off her shoes and left them in the leaves. Back in the bedroom, though, she found that the wooden screen was just too large and awkward for her to carry up the ladder. When she could figure out no other way to get it up, she went upstairs and tore a piece of fabric from a sheet. She climbed down, tied the fabric to the screen, climbed back up, and then pulled the screen after her.

Now, she was ready to climb the tree. Marie Alice went again back down the ladder. Standing on the stool, she pushed up on the cover as hard as she could. It creaked loudly and crashed closed. What a horrible sound! Marie Alice thought. She hoped she never had to open that cover again.

Marie Alice ran back through the house in her socked feet, putting the stool back where she had found it. Outside, she put on her shoes and went back to the tree. It was a huge tree, with rough bark full of cracks and grooves. She worried as she walked back to the tree that there would be no easy way to climb it. However, when she got there, she could see that some little steps had been attached to the trunk near the bottom. They went up to a little platform just above her head. As she walked to the tree to start her climb, her foot hit a board lying in the tall grass. Bending down, she discovered that it was the seat from a swing that must have been tied to the tree. She picked it up and placed it on the platform, then climbed up and sat down next to it. The swing was clearly for a small child, and looking at the sweet little house, Marie Alice couldn't help but think about the people who lived here. Had they been taken by the ghosts? Somehow, the idea was just too horrible for her. She imagined the child crying, as the ghost men led them all away. What if the child was separated from his parents? What if....

Marie Alice found herself hugging the little swing to her chest, as tears ran down her face. It had been such a long time since she had seen her parents. What if something had happened to them? She hadn't once sent them a letter to tell them that she was okay. Her mother must be so worried. Why hadn't she thought about them before this? She sat there for a minute thinking about her mother's face. Then, she took a deep breath and told herself firmly that she had work to do and that her parents were probably fine. She didn't entirely believe this, but she wasn't going to think about it anymore right now. She was cold and standing in a tree, after all.

The branches of the big tree stretched out over the roof of the little house, and Marie Alice could see exactly where she needed to go. She left the little swing on the the platform and climbed up, up, up into the tree. Once, her hair got caught on a branch, but she just gave it a firm tug, and it came undone. Marie Alice felt pretty confident as she climbed, until she started climbing out towards the roof. The branch started to bend a little, but she wasn't even over the roof yet. She crawled our further, and the branch made a little cracking noise. For a second, Marie Alice couldn't move, and she didn't know what to do. Her heart pounded in her ears. There was another cracking sound, and this time, she decided to hurry. She climbed as quickly as she could along the branch, until she was above the edge of the roof. She looked down. Marie Alice was terrified that the branch would break, and she would fall. At the same time, she just couldn't make herself swing down to the roof. She took a deep breath and then pushed her legs out away from the branch. She swung forward. Maybe this was going to work pretty well, she thought. Just then, her hands slipped off the branch, and she fell.

Marie Alice landed on her butt on the roof with a thud. The roof didn't look too steep, but her feet were uphill from her body, and she could feel herself tilting backwards. She was going to tumble off the roof. As quickly as she could, Marie Alice rolled forward onto her hand and knees and started scrambling up the roof. She got to the chimney and just held onto it for a while, until her heart finally stopped pounding. She could see the front yard of the little house and the gate from here. It really didn't look like it was that far down. The one time she and Sasha had climbed up to the roof of the castle, it had definitely been a much longer drop. Marie Alice started to feel better. She walked carefully up to the peak of the roof and then over to the edge. The hole where the grating had been was right there. Laying down on her stomach, Marie Alice scooted herself back so that her feet were hanging over the edge. She kicked them, and it wasn't hard to figure out where the hole started. She couldn't quite reach the bottom, though. She scooted back a little farther, and then her arms started to tremble. She wasn't really sure how she was planning on getting out of the attic once she got into it. And would she even be able to get in? Suddenly, this didn't seem like such a good idea. Her arms were really shaking. She pulled as hard as she could, but she just couldn't pull herself up. Marie Alice bent her knees and swung her legs. The first time, she just found the hole. She swung again, and this time her feet touched the side of the house. She pushed as hard as she could and tried to push up with her arms. Her palms slid a little, and Marie Alice was sure she was going to fall. But the sliding stopped, and her arms finally started to lift her. A second later, she was back up on the roof. She crawled to the chimney and sat down, crying again. What was she going to do now?

She wished that Sasha was here to help her. Marie Alice thought of how she had last seen him, with his hat and butterfly net. He was a good friend, and she had been terribly unfair to him. It had been his kindness, not jealousy, that had made him offer to come along. She smiled a little thinking about how much more fun she would have had with Sasha on her adventure. Of course, it was too late for that. She wondered if he was mad at her. So much time had passed that he probably didn't even remember who she was... just a little girl he had played with when he was young.

Clouds were starting to fill the sky, blocking out some of the starlight. Marie Alice shivered in the cold and realized that she didn't have a lot of time. If she waited much longer, the clouds might block out all the light, which would make it very dangerous to try and get off the roof. Also, if it started to rain, she would be in big trouble, sitting on a roof in the cold and soaking wet. She would definitely get sick. What a miserable thought! Marie Alice looked down into the yard. There was the hedge where the grating had fallen. There was the tree house and the swing. Maybe, she thought, I could use the swing.

The big tree didn't have many branches that grew over the roof, so Marie Alice walked along the edge looking for another way down. There was one branch that grew beside the house that looked like it wouldn't break if she climbed onto it. She sat down on the edge of the roof and reached her legs out toward the branch. She could reach it without much trouble, but she was pretty sure she couldn't just walk along it like a tightrope walker. That would just be stupid. There was another branch above her that was much smaller. She stood up and grabbed it then sat down again and eased her way out onto the branch. The branch above her wasn't very thick, and Marie Alice was sure it wouldn't hold her if she fell. However, it helped with her balance, so she held on as she crouched down towards the branch she was standing on. Closer and closer. Finally, she was able to touch it with one hand, so she let the other branch spring back up and took a moment to just be glad she was safely in the tree. The branch was pretty easy to crawl along for a while, but when it started to get close to the tree trunk, it started to angle downwards, and she had to turn around and scoot down the rest of the way. She arrived safely in the tree house, though, and found the swing just where she left it.

The rope on the swing looked old and really dirty. Marie Alice wasn't so sure that it would hold her up. Since she wasn't going to go up on the roof again until she was sure, she decided to test it. She looped one end around a branch and tried putting some of her weight on it. It seemed okay. She swung on it a little, and the rope didn't break. Finally, she swung out with all her weight on the ropes of the old swing. It was so wet and muddy that the rope just slipped through her fingers, and she landed with a thump on the ground. Wetter, muddier, and colder than before, Marie Alice decided that the swing was good enough. She wanted to get inside right away. She pulled it off the branch, tucked it under her arm, and climbed back up the tree.

Getting back up onto the roof wasn't quite so hard this time, although she did have a little bit of trouble managing to get up with the swing, but finally she tied it to a branch and then pulled it up after her. Once up on the roof, she tied one end of the rope to chimney, using a cool knot that Sasha had taught her, and then climbed down the rope to get to the hole. She took the grating from where she had left it and wedged it into the hole. It wasn't perfect, but she didn't care. Right now, she was cold and tired and miserable. She took off her muddy shoes and crawled into the nest she had made. Soon, Marie Alice was fast asleep.

It was the cold that woke Marie Alice the next morning. She was surprised that it wasn't the sunlight that woke her up, as now it streamed in through the window. How much nicer it was to be able to see around the attic! She wrapped one of the blankets from her nest around her shoulders and started going through the boxes. Marie Alice sorted the boxes closest to her and moved the ones that contained papers and old books to the edges of the attic, so that she would have more room. There were also boxes of toys, clothes, holiday decorations, and fancy silverware. She did borrow a couple of interesting looking books and a warm jacket but kept pushing the boxes back. By the time she had looked through about half of the boxes, she had a nice little pile of useful items: most of what she needed to eat a little meal, some tools, a broom, and even a candle holder with a glass chimney. More importantly, she had enough space to move around. Finally, she found the box of jars, and they did look like they contained fruit. She opened one up, and took a little taste. The fruit was delicious, and Marie Alice ate it while thinking of the jars of fruit that she and Sasha sometimes stole from the kitchen at the castle.

Marie Alice was still very hungry, so she decided it was time to go back to the little store. She had left her suitcase there, too. She made her way to the back of the attic and pushed open the grating while holding on to the tie, so that it wouldn't fall. It was a pretty bad way to get in and out, and she decided that she would buy a hinge, like the kind that is on a door, as it would make coming and going much easier. Marie Alice scooted out of the hole and grabbed onto the rope. She pushed the grating back into the hole, which was harder than it sounds. Then, she started to climb down the rope. Her arms were tired from the night before, and soon her hands hurt. Suddenly, she heard a snap and fell down into the yard, landing in the hedge, just as the grating had done.

The rope was still in Marie Alice's hand. She sat looking at it for a moment, before she finally struggled out of the hedge. Her hip hurt. When she finally made it out of the bushes, she pulled the rest of the rope out after her. Tied to one end was half of the wooden swing seat. She looked up and could see the other half on the edge of the roof. Marie Alice walked over to the tree house and put the broken swing on its floor. Her head hurt a little, and her hip really hurt. There was nothing she could do about it now, though, so Marie Alice took a deep breath and started walking to the little store.

It didn't take long at all to get there, which she thought was good, because she couldn't have gone much further. She was dirty, scratched up, limping, and her lovely hair was really a mess. She had been a princess. While it was true that she and Sasha had occasionally come home covered in mud, Marie Alice had really tried to look nice most of the time, like a princess should. No one here knew who she was, though, so she guessed that it didn't matter if she was a princess or not.

Inside the store, the gray woman was sweeping. She looked up at Marie Alice and said, "You left your bags."

"Yes," Marie Alice said, "I did."

Then, she went over to the counter and started to look for the things she needed.

"You are leaving dirty footprints on my floor," the woman said.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Marie Alice said, trying very hard to be polite. If she was going to live here for a while, being rude would only make her life harder. "I fell out of a tree this morning."

This got the gray woman's attention. "Why were you in a tree?"

"Well, you see, the little house where I am to live is quite lovely, but there is a lot of dust, and I have a terrible dust allergy. Before I can live there, I must clean it thoroughly. Until then, I have chosen a lovely tree just outside of town," she waved her hand around as though she was pointing, "and I'll live there until I get the house clean enough."

The gray woman looked at Marie Alice like she was crazy.

Marie Alice said, "Well, there's no dust in trees, you know." The gray woman nodded, as if she wasn't quite sure, but Marie Alice smiled at the gray woman with her most charming princess smile and then quickly continued, "I'll need some rope, candles, a lot of soap, some sponges, screws, a hinge, and a pair of gloves that will fit my hands. Oh, and three pairs of heavy socks."

Traveling was expensive, and Marie Alice didn't have a lot of money left. Luckily, though, these things didn't cost too much. Just as she was about to leave the store, Marie Alice saw a row of dusty bottles high up on a shelf. They were very pretty, and they gave Marie Alice an idea. "I'll also take all of those bottles, corks, a can of whitewash, and a paintbrush."

If the gray woman thought this was stranger than anything else Marie Alice had said, her face didn't show it. She just packed everything together in a box and tied it up with string. Marie Alice made a great show of sneezing when the dusty bottles got near her and said, "Oh! I'll have to clean these outside. My poor allergies!"

With the box under her arm, a traveling case in one hand, and her suitcase in another, Marie Alice struggled out of the little store. She was sure that the gray woman was watching her go, so she walked straight ahead to a large hedge and then squeezed through. The other side of the hedge was probably someone's overgrown yard, but it could have easily been a forest, as there wasn't a house in sight. Ferns and other small plants covered the ground, and tall trees towered overhead. There was no path, and Marie Alice was sure that she would end up falling if she tried to walk with all these things. So, she hid her traveling case and the box under some leaves near a bush with especially pretty pink flowers, and then struggled along with the suitcase. She didn't want to go straight to the little house on the road, since if she was actually living in a tree, she would certainly take her suitcase there. This meant that she would have to find another way. As Marie Alice walked, she heard a sound coming from somewhere ahead of her. It was the sharp sound of pieces of metal being beaten together. She was trying really hard to be sneaky, but that was pretty difficult with the heavy suitcase. The best that she could do was to make sure that she stepped on soft, mossy places and didn't crash into too many trees with her case. Finally, she saw another thick hedge up ahead of her. From behind it came a smoky, hot breeze. Marie Alice carefully set down her suitcase and crept over to the hedge.

Crouching down low, Marie Alice pushed herself partway into the hedge. On the other side, a large man in a sleeveless shirt was hammering a piece of red-hot metal. Marie Alice had never thought much about blacksmiths. Of course, she knew that they existed, but the other princesses certainly never talked about them. For quite a while, she just sit and watched him. Turning a piece of hot metal into a useful tool - she thought this might be a fancy fireplace poker - was really amazing. How she wished she had brought Sasha along now! He would have loved watching this. Eventually, she realized that she needed to work on other things, so she retrieved the suitcase and started lugging it towards the little house, making sure to stay far away from the blacksmith.

There was a narrow hole in the hedge just across a dark stretch of road from the little cottage, and Marie Alice squeezed through it. She swung the suitcase over the white fence and then climbed over after it, hurrying into the backyard as quickly as possible. It was harder than it should have been, because her hip still hurt. The yard wasn't really very big, now that she looked at it in the daylight, and the forest came right up to the edge of it. It was easy to walk out into the forest and find a place to hide the suitcase until she could get it up into the attic. Getting the box and her traveling case was pretty simple after that, and it was only after she had everything in the woods behind the little house that she realized that she had forgotten to get any food. Once again, she set out through the woods, this time going towards the river, instead of away from it. She got lost a couple of time, but eventually found her way back to the little store.

If she was pretending to live in a tree, then she certainly couldn't cook in the little house. Marie Alice ended up buying a large piece of bread, some cheese, and some smoked fish packed in oil. When she was very little, Marie Alice had often gone with her father when he traveled around their little kingdom to check on the families who lived there. Her father loved these oily smoked fish, and the smell of it reminder her of those trips. It had been so long since she had seen him, and her heart gave a little twist as the gray woman wrapped them up.

As Marie Alice was heading out of the store, Mr. Bristol was walking in. He didn't seem to notice that she was a mess. He just seemed to barely recognize her. After looking at her for a minute, he finally remembered who she was and said, "Alice? Dinner will be an hour before sunset." Then, he stumbled into the restaurant part of the store.

While it was a strange invitation, Marie Alice hadn't forgotten that he had paid for her dinner the night before, and she certainly wasn't going to turn down a free meal, especially a free hot meal. Since he hadn't waited for her answer, she guessed that it wasn't so important for her to say anything, so she headed out the door and through the hedge.

There was so much to do! Marie Alice looked at her supplies and wasn't really sure where to start. However, she guessed that the most important thing was to make sure she could get back into the attic. She had imagined building a rope ladder, but now that she looked at the rope, it didn't seem like something she could do. Instead, she made big knots in the rope that were easy to stand on. This way, she could go up and down the rope without too much trouble. She smeared some mud on the rope too so that it would be dark enough that people wouldn't see it on the roof. At least, she hoped they wouldn't see it.

There were still a few hours before it started getting dark, so Marie Alice decided that she would clean the house a little and then take a bath, since she thought that it wasn't too weird for her to use the bathroom of the little house, even if she was living in a tree.

The house was actually pretty clean, but Marie Alice had planned on taking a really long time to clean it. So, she started by cleaning the bathroom. She also spent lots of time outside the front door sneezing. Later, she also untied the little string from the door to the attic. She didn't want anyone to find her hideout, after all.

When Marie Alice walked back into the little store later that day, she was finally clean and dry. She had washed and brushed her hair and wrapped it around her head like a braided crown. While she ate a tasty, hot dinner, she asked Mr. Bristol questions about Crossingtown. She didn't want to know the history, though. She wanted to know about the people who lived there now. Who were they? How did they protect themselves against the ghosts? Were there many families?

It seems that there were only seven houses in town with people living in them. The blacksmith was one. The blacksmith said that he wasn't afraid of the ghosts, but he barred his doors at night too. There was a little old woman who had a tiny house far from the river. She had two large dogs that barked at everyone who came near. Mr. Bristol told Marie Alice that he had heard that one of the dogs would have puppies soon. The people left in the town were all thinking, he said, about getting one of the puppies for themselves. The family of the barge master lived close to the river. They were the largest family still in town. The barge master was a very old man, with no hair at all, except for the fluffiest white eyebrows you ever saw. He had two sons and two daughters, although the oldest son had died in an accident during the building of the bridge, and the oldest daughter had married a fisherman and moved far away. The younger son had married, had two children, then his wife died, and he married again. The barge master's youngest was now old enough that her mother feared she would never marry. This daughter was a bossy woman, who organized the family, which wasn't a bad thing, as her brother's new wife had given birth to four children already and seemed as though she intended to make up for all the children that everyone else in the family had never had.

There was a also boarded up stable not far from the little store. Marie Alice had thought that it was abandoned, but Mr. Bristol said that three people lived there. There was an older man, who had worked at the stable when he was a boy; a middle-aged woman, who had a round face and big blue eyes; and a young man, who wasn't their son. No one was sure where this young man had come from, and though he was friendly enough, he never talked about his past with anyone in town.

The old inn had burned to the ground in a fire that had also destroyed two other houses in the center of town. This happened after the bridge was built, and because the people of Crossingtown had no need of an inn, they just planted a hedge where the inn had been. The store, of course, remained from when the town was full of people. Mrs. Logginston had run it with her husband, who had disappeared two years ago. Marie Alice guessed that the gray woman was Mrs. Logginston, although Mr. Bristol never said so. There was a girl who worked in the kitchen sometimes, although it wasn't so necessary now that there were so few people left in town. The girl's family had disappeared about a year ago, and so she lived with her cousin's family, who had a house just down the road from the little cottage where Marie Alice lived. At the end of that road was Mr. Bristol's house. His wife had died not long after their daughter disappeared. His father had been mayor, so after he died, Mr. Bristol had become mayor.

It certainly was a very depressing situation, Marie Alice thought. She was surprised that so many people had stayed, but there was an old saying about how it was safer to stay in a sinking ship than to jump into the water. Before she could find out much more information about some of the people who had disappeared, Mr. Bristol announced that it was getting dark, and they must all go home. He told her that she should come a little earlier the next time, as they hadn't had time to drink tea after their meal. Marie Alice guessed that this meant she was to come the next night also for dinner. Mr. Bristol had already turned away to leave, so Marie Alice took two of the rolls of bread from the table and hurried out also.

She took a path through the hedge between the stable and the store, sneaking behind the store down the bank towards the river, before crossing the river road at one of the darkest places and climbing up another bank to reach the yard behind the little house. Marie Alice made sure that her bags in the woods were still covered with leaves, then she pulled on a dark coat and hat, her new gloves, and her sturdy tree-climbing shoes. She picked up the climbing rope and took her favorite route up the tree and onto the roof. She untied the rope of the broken swing and threw it down into the yard. She was getting ready to tie the new climbing rope around the chimney, when she saw a movement down in the road. Marie Alice pressed herself flat to the roof then crawled up to the peak of the roof to see if she could figure out who was out there.

Three big guys walked up the road and stood in front of the house. Marie Alice only recognized one of them. He wasn't wearing a jacket, just a dirty-looking sweater. His belly hung over his pants, and he wore heavy boots on his feet. Sweater-man pointed to a short guy with tiny eyes and said, "There's a girl who is supposed to be living here now. Go check it out." A couple of other guys came up the road, and Sweater-man sent them to search the town. Just a minute later, the short guy came back and said, "There's a bunch of soap and stuff in there, but that's it. Nobody's home." Sweater-man turned and said something that Marie Alice didn't hear. As the guys went around the town, Marie Alice put her head down on the roof and just listened.

She wasn't cold thanks to the warm clothes, and for a minute she might have even fallen asleep. A squeaking from the front yard drew her attention, though, and Marie Alice peeped around the chimney to see what was happening. Sweater-man was watching two of the men, who were walking up the road towards them. One carried a big sack. Two others were leading a man and a woman with bags over their heads and ropes tying their hands. This was how people disappeared? Before, Marie Alice had thought that the "ghost" story was hard to believe. Now, she was pretty certain that these ghosts were just criminals who kidnapped people and stole stuff at night. Someone in town must be helping them, though, as they had known about her. She wondered how many of these "ghosts" there were. Marie Alice decided she was going to find out. It was stupid for a whole town to live in fear of these guys. And what had happened to all the people they had taken?

Finally, the ghosts left, and when Marie Alice was sure they were gone, she attached the rope to the chimney and started working on getting all of her stuff up into the attic. By the time everything was safely in the attic, Marie Alice was really tired. It had been a long day, but she couldn't go to bed yet, as she really wanted to put the hinge on the grating. She put a blanket over the front window, and then put boxes in front of it, before finally lighting a candle and putting it in the little lantern. It wasn't very bright, but it was amazing to suddenly be able to see. Marie Alice worked with the screen closed, but still she was sure that light was shining out of it. Installing the hinge took a while, as she had never done any work like this before, and it was a lot harder than she thought it would be. Her first try wouldn't open at all, and the second try didn't seem right either. She was pretty sure that heavy screen would pull the screws out after only a few days. In the end, she put the hinge on the top, so that she could get in and out, but the screen would always swing close by itself. When that was done, Marie Alice put a blanket over the screen, piled more boxes in front of it and started getting a bed ready.

The next morning for breakfast, Marie Alice ate the rolls and all the fruit left in the big jar. There was still a lot of syrup in the jar. Marie Alice sealed it up and put it into a basket she had found. She added the dusty bottles and corks then tied to the handle the strip of cloth that she had used to pull up the screen. She lowered the basket down into the yard. After that, she put on all her tree climbing gear and headed out.

It wasn't hard now to get up onto the roof from the attic. She pulled the rope up after her and hid it in the chimney. Marie Alice thought that first thing in the morning would be the best time for her tree-climbing training, as she was supposed to be coming down from the tree she lived in anyway. She planned on climbing a different tree every day, as it would definitely confuse people.

Training was more tiring than Marie Alice expected, but it was also more fun. She wasn't trying to figure out how to get into the attic without being seen or working on some other complicated project. Instead, she just climbed around on the big tree that she had seen from the road when she first came to town. She didn't have to think about anything besides where she was going to put her hand or foot next.

On her way back to the little cottage, she stopped by the store and bought some food. The gray woman didn't seem so surprised to see her this time.

Marie Alice decided to clean the kitchen, climbing up on the counters to scrub out each of the cabinets. It was a lot of work, and she was surprised how dirty the walls above the cabinets were. When she was done, she left the cabinet doors open to let them dry, while she went to the back of the house and got the basket with the bottles. The little bottles were still really dusty, so she carefully washed each one and lined them up on the counter. Then, she got a fresh bucket of water from the well beside the house and filled each little bottle halfway. She poured syrup from the jar of fruit into the little bottles to fill them and sealed each one with a cork. Sasha had called a drink like this "kompote", and Marie Alice had helped him make it before.

Marie Alice didn't feel like hauling the bottles back up to the attic, so she walked around the kitchen until she found the darkest cabinet. It was one that she hadn't cleaned yet, but she guessed that it probably wouldn't be too dirty. She took a bottle and tried to set it in the very back of the cabinet. The bottle clinked into something. Marie Alice got down onto her hand and knees and crawled halfway into the cabinet to figure out what was in there. At the very back was a box. Marie Alice pulled it out.

The box was carved from a pale green stone. Could this be a magic box? Marie Alice wanted to open it and see what was inside, but she decided that she probably shouldn't. It was hard to take seriously anything that the witch had said. It had been so long ago, and she had more important things to do right now. Still, the witch had doubted that she would complete the quest, and Marie Alice wanted to show her that she was wrong. Instead, she put the box back where she had found it and put the little bottles around it. She tried to position the cabinet door just as it had been before, but it was hard to remember how she had found it. Maybe no one would notice the change if she left all the upper cabinet doors open and all the bottom ones mostly closed.

That evening Mr. Bristol was in a bad mood, and it wasn't until partway through dinner that he told her that the family who lived in the stable had disappeared the night before. This didn't seem right to Marie Alice as she had only seen two people being taken away the night before, but she decided not to say anything. She wasn't sure that Mr. Bristol was the right person to talk to about how fake the ghosts were. He was so afraid that she thought he probably wasn't interested in thinking a different way about them. Marie Alice went home after dinner and tucked herself into her warm nest. She worried about the people who were taken, but it was so hard to do anything to help.

The next day, Marie Alice took the paint out to the little stand by the road and painted it so that it didn't look so sad and lonely. The traveling coach would come by the next day, and Marie Alice hoped she could make some money selling the kompote. She wasn't spending too much money, but with no money coming in, every little bit that went out worried her.

Later that night, Marie Alice was having dinner with Mr. Bristol as usual, when suddenly a young man ripped open the front door and stormed into the little store. He stomped into the restaurant area and walked right up to their table. Mr. Bristol looked terrified. The young man slammed his hand down on the table and shouted, "What happened to them? Where are they?"

Mr. Bristol looked like his brain had just stopped working, and he just stared at the young man. Probably, this was the young man who lived with the man and woman in the stable, Marie Alice thought. Mr. Bristol just sat there staring, so finally, Marie Alice decided that someone should tell this young man what happened, even though she was pretty sure that it was obvious. She took a sip of water and then said with her calmest voice, "The ghosts took them. He thought that the ghosts took all of you."

The young man looked at her and wrinkled his forehead. "Who are you?" he asked.

While he seemed upset and angry, Marie Alice noticed that he wasn't anywhere near as rude as Mr. Bristol and the gray woman had been. She decided that it wasn't time to smile, so she held out her hand and said, "I'm Marie Alice. I'm new here."

He shook her hand, looking down at it with a confused expression. His face looked like he was trying to decide which emotions he wanted, as though they were a suit of clothes he'd have to wear for the whole evening. He finally seemed to choose "concerned and upset", which was much more reasonable, Marie Alice thought, than "angry and afraid". The young man sat down with them and talked a little. He had been away from the town for a few days, but he didn't say where. Marie Alice didn't find out his name, but she decided that he seemed like a nice enough person.

As the days and weeks passed, Marie Alice started to wonder why she hadn't just taken the little green box and left. It didn't belong to anyone anymore. Every day she would pick a spot on one of the big trees around the little town and climb up to it. She also spent a lot of time practicing sneaking around very quietly. Sometimes she sold kompote at the stand by the road. Every night, she watched for the ghost men. She had names for all twelve of them, although only five or six at a time would come to town. Marie Alice felt like she was waiting for some excuse to take the box. Some part of her worried that if she just took it, it would be stealing.

One morning, she woke up, and it was very cold. Very very cold. Marie Alice stuck one chilly arm out from her nest to dig through a box that she was pretty sure had more blankets. She was so cold, though, that she didn't even want to uncover her head. She just pulled at the box with the blankets. Inside, she found a big, heavy one, so she pulled as hard as she could to get it out. At first, it wouldn't budge, but finally the top popped off the box, and the blanket landed on top of her. From outside her warm little nest, though, she could hear a sliding sound. Was it a box falling? There was a couple of loud thunks, and Marie Alice knew that more than one box had fallen. She hadn't heard the sound of breaking glass, so probably nothing was broken.

Marie Alice decided that she had better clean up the mess, so she put on as many layers of clothes as she could and crawled out of the nest. One box that had fallen had candles and onions in it. She couldn't guess why anyone would have stacked candles on top of a box of onions, but people did strange things. The other box had split opened and spilled photographs out onto the floor. Picking them up, Marie Alice saw that most of the photographs showed a small boy. Sometimes he was with his mother. Sometimes he was with his father. She saw him swinging on the swing in the back yard and playing in the tree house. Had the ghosts taken him? Why would they take a small boy? All at once, images flashed in her mind of all the terrible things the ghost-men could have done to the family, and probably there were many other things that she hadn't even thought of. 

Looked again at the photograph, Marie Alice started to shake. The ghost men didn't look like nice people, and she wasn't going to let them hurt the little boy. If no one would stop them, then she would. Her father had told her that part of the responsibility of ruling was to protect people. Maybe she didn't act like a princess anymore. Maybe she didn't have fancy clothes or money or a castle, but she did have a responsibility to make sure that people didn't suffer. She knew now that it was past time for her to go home, because her main responsibility was there. Before she did, though, she was going to help this little boy. She knew that her father would say it was the right thing to do.

The day was cold, and the night was colder. The ghosts didn't come. Marie Alice did her best to stay warm in her nest, but she was just so cold that she finally decided that she had to do something. She bundled up in her warmest clothes and climbed out of the attic. As quickly as she could, Marie Alice made her way to the old stable. She knocked on the door as loudly as she could and waited. After a minute, she heard a man's voice ask, "Who's there?" He didn't sound friendly.

"I'm Marie Alice. I'm the one who has dinner with Mr. Bristol. I have really long gold hair. Do you remember me? It is too cold for me. Can I live with you until it gets warm?"

Now that she thought about it, this request seemed weird. Not stupid, really, just strange.

The man said, "If this is a trick...."

"I'm not working for the ghosts. People were getting taken a long time before I came. All I want is to be someplace warm. I can help with the cooking and cleaning."

Marie Alice wasn't sure if it was her logic or the offer of cooking and cleaning that made him open the door, but after a few seconds, she heard locks being undone one by one. Soon, the door opened, and a puff of warm air blew over her. Marie Alice hadn't realized how cold she was until this moment. She started to shake, and her teeth started chattering. The young man from the restaurant stopped looking unhappy and started looking concerned. "Get in here before you freeze to death," he said.

After he closed the door behind her, he said, "Where have you been living?"

Marie Alice was going to tell him about living in a tree, but she thought that if he was going to trust her in his house, she should really tell him the truth. "It's a secret. I've been living in the attic of the cottage down the road. I think that someone here must be working for the ghost-men, and I don't think it is safe for me to live in the cottage. I tell everyone that I live in a tree. Either way, it is too cold for me now."

"You tell people that you live in a tree? Don't they think you are crazy?"

"Yes," Marie Alice replied, "but the ghost-men haven't gone looking for me. Also, I've actually gotten very good at climbing trees."

"Why are you here?" the young man asked.

"It is a long and not important story. I can tell you, though, that I plan on rescuing the family that lived in that cottage. Really, I want to rescue everyone. Of course, the ghost-men aren't ghosts. They are just men. I've watched them."

The young man looked surprised and then more serious. "How can you possibly rescue those people?" he asked. "They must have an army."

"In fact, I'm pretty sure there are only twelve of them. I've counted."

"Are you sure?"

"Pretty sure," Marie Alice replied.

The young man looked thoughtful and went to stand by the fire. Marie Alice quickly followed him, as she was still very cold. She sat down on the floor and took off her boots and socks so that she could warm up her feet. Her feet looked white, like wax.

The young man looked at her feet and said, "Those look awful. Let me get you some water to warm them in."

He came back not long after with a bowl of water. It wasn't very hot at all, and at first, Marie Alice thought that this was stupid. They should just use some really warm water to get her feet warmed up. However, when she tried to put her feet in the water, it felt almost too hot. And then her feet started to hurt! They really hurt! After a little while, though, the pain lessened, and her feet were red instead of white. She looked up to find the young man and ask for a towel, but he was gone. Marie Alice realized that she couldn't even call to him, because she didn't know his name. Shouting "hey, you!" was rude. When the water started to get a little chilly, she took her feet out and dried them on her socks, then let them warm in front of the fire.

While she waited for him to come back, Marie Alice looked around the room. It was pretty big. There was a table in the front corner, a cooking stove nearby, and some cabinets in the other corner on that side of the room. On her side of the room, there was a long couch and the fireplace. It wasn't fancy, but it was pretty clean. All the windows were covered with shutters. The front door had been locked again, and a big bar was across it. There was another door right near her, and it was also barred. Opposite the front door was an opening that Marie Alice guessed was a hallway, but she wasn't really sure, as it was really dark. As she watched, the young man came out of the darkness carrying some blankets and a pillow.

Marie Alice took a breath and started to speak, but the young man said, "No questions!"

Of course, she was surprised, but she was so used to people being rude to her in this town that she held up a hand and said, "I only wanted to ask your name. If you don't want to tell me, just say so, and I'll make one up."

The young man looked down for a second and then said, "I'm Ryan."

He put everything down on the end of the couch and moved a rifle that Marie Alice hadn't seen from behind one of the cushions. Now, Marie Alice could see that he looked very tired and very sad. He said, "I sleep here on the couch. You can sleep on these in front of the fire or over there if you want." He pointed towards the kitchen. "The bathroom is at the end of the hall. The rooms are off limits."

Ryan handed her the blankets and pillow. There were some sheets and a towel there too. Marie Alice wanted to ask why they couldn't just sleep in the rooms like normal people. However, it was his house, and she was a guest. If he didn't want to tell her, then he didn't have to. At least, there was a fire, and she would be warm.

"If it is okay, I'll bring some clothes over tomorrow. I will only stay until it is warm enough for me to go back to the attic," Marie Alice said. She didn't add that she hoped that she would have rescued the family long before the spring. Then, she would be able to leave. She wanted to get back to her parents as soon as possible. She had been gone far too long.

Ryan nodded and then turned to the couch. Marie Alice didn't want to bother him anymore, so she made a bed out of blankets in front of the fire. Probably there was something not proper about sleeping this close to a strange man, but she decided that being close to the fire was more important than being proper. She supposed he could have killed her or something, but if he had wanted to hurt her, all he had to do was leave her outside.

The floor smelled a little like horses, Marie Alice thought, as she lay down. She wondered if the smell would keep her awake, but before she even finished wondering, she was asleep.

The next morning, Marie Alice was putting her shoes on in preparation for running off to the attic to get her clothes, when she remembered that she had promised to cook and clean for Ryan. She thought that at least she could make breakfast before she left. Marie Alice had never had to cook for herself, but Sasha had made a couple of dishes that the castle's cook had refused to make (because the cook didn't like foreign things and complained that Sasha's food was too different). Marie Alice had decided to surprise Sasha by making one of these for his birthday. It was fluffy little pancakes, but they had turned out very flat. Sasha ate them, though, and declared that they were very tasty. Not long after that, he showed her how to cook them correctly. She had made them a few times after that: on Sasha's next birthday and on a holiday that Sasha was very excited about (even though Marie Alice didn't really understand what the holiday was celebrating). Since this was one of the only things she could cook that looked really nice, Marie Alice decided to start with little pancakes.

It seemed that the people who had lived in the old stable had really liked to cook. Marie Alice found cabinets full of all kinds of useful ingredients. She measured and mixed and fried, and at the end, there were tasty little pancakes. Ryan said that he didn't care about food, but he ate every one that Marie Alice put on his plate, even though she made a lot of them. After they were done, she washed the dishes and went out to get her things from the attic.

When she was about halfway there, taking her usual route through the hedges and behind buildings to practice sneaking, Marie Alice realized that she would have to stay after dark at the little cottage if she was going to stop the ghost men. She couldn't just make a trap for them, after all. Every time she and Sasha had made a trap, there had been a problem, and it hadn't worked very well. Also, they had usually gotten in big trouble. She would have to follow them back to their base, but what would she do when she got there? She couldn't beat them all up and really that sounded like a bad plan even if she could.

While Marie Alice packed, she tried to think of what she would do to free the townspeople from the ghosts. Of course, there was no way to know. She had no idea what the base was like. Maybe they were in a city, maybe in the country, maybe in one big building, or maybe separated by miles. Finally, she decided that the best thing to do would be to have a bunch of options. Since she didn't really know even one thing that would work, though, she decided to ask for help. Probably the witch who lived in the tree far to the south would have some ideas.

So, after she had dropped off her bags at the old stable, she went to the little store and bought some writing paper and a pen. It had been a long time since she had done any writing, and at first she felt very nervous. Would she be able to explain what she needed? It took her a few tries, but finally Marie Alice got started and felt the words flowing out of her onto the paper. The letter was actually pretty long. Maybe she talked about her feelings and the people in the town more than necessary, but she wanted the witch to understand.

It was so important that the witch not think that she was simply being silly or that she had made a mistake. Marie Alice wasn't sure exactly what the problem was, but often people - even Sasha - hadn't understood when something was really important to her. Marie Alice wondered if she just was very bad at explaining things, or maybe people just didn't think that she could tell the difference between something that just seemed important and something that really mattered.

After sitting and thinking for a while, Marie Alice realized that there were times when Sasha had told her about one of his ideas, and she had said that it was stupid or wouldn't work. There had been times when her mother had wanted to walk in the gardens with her, when Marie Alice had been too busy, and times when her father had wanted to talk, when she wasn't interested in what he had to say. It made her sad to think that she had hurt her parents and Sasha without even noticing.

With a sigh, Marie Alice folded up her letter to the witch and sealed it with a little bit of glue. A carriage would be coming by in just a few hours, so she made up another batch of kompote. Then, she carried everything up to the little stand beside the road and waited.

Once the letter was on its way to the little town by the sea and all of her kompote was sold, Marie Alice thought that she should go back to the stable to find a place for her things and to make lunch. Even in the middle of the day, it was very cold, and she was very glad that she could stay there instead of in the attic. As she snuck back towards town and thought about the cold, she decided to go down to see the river. She had never been down to the water, and she wondered if it had frozen.

Along the edges of the river, there were a lot of reeds, and it was hard to see the water. Marie Alice guessed that there must be some way to reach it, as the townspeople had taken people across the river before the bridge was built. She walked towards town through the tall reeds, hearing the crunch of half frozen mud under her feet. Ahead, there was a little clearing, and Marie Alice crouched down before she peered out of the reeds. She could easily see that this wasn't the crossing place. Instead, there was a big, gray rock ahead of her. The water from the river had come up to meet it, it seemed, as there was ice leading from it out away from the town. There were still reeds around the rock and in the ice, but there were fewer and it was much easier to see where she was going.

Marie Alice climbed up on the rock. It was pretty big, but she had enough practice climbing that she was able to get up on top without too much trouble. From the top, she could see over the reeds. On one side, up on the top of the bank and through the trees, she could see the town. Ahead of her, past more reeds, was a wide dock, probably where the ferry that crossed the river had been. Opposite the town, on the other side of the reeds, was a very wide river. Ice had formed along the edges, and the sheets of ice that floated along with the current glittered in the sun's cold light. Marie Alice didn't know how long it would take for the river to freeze, but there was a lot more winter before the spring, so she thought it probably would.

That night, Marie Alice watched for ghosts, but none came. She watched the next night and the night after that. The ghosts didn't come. After a few more nights without ghosts, Marie Alice guessed that something was keeping them away. She asked Ryan, the young man from the old stable, if this had happened before, but he said he hadn't been in town too long. Marie Alice explored and thought and climbed and waited. Finally, one day when she was waiting for the carriage, she walked out to the bridge and saw that the river had completely frozen. If the ghosts came in boats on the river, then maybe they wouldn't be able to come back until spring. Also, she thought, if they came in boats, then they were "pirates" and not "ghosts". She couldn't decide if fighting pirates was better or worse than fighting ghosts.

Marie Alice ran back to town as quickly as she could and wrote a letter to the witch explaining that the men were pirates. She didn't know if this would make a difference to the witch, but maybe it would be important. She sealed it quickly and then ran back to her little stand. The coachman had stopped because he had seen her kompote there on the stand, but the passengers were looking confused now that there was no one to sell it to them. Marie Alice apologized with her best salesperson smile and offered everyone a discount on the kompote, since they had had to wait. Before they left, she gave the letter to the carriage driver, asking him to make sure it went to the little post office in the town by the sea.

After that, Marie Alice waited. She waited though cold nights sleeping on the floor by the fire and through cold days climbing trees, sneaking around town, and doing chores for Ryan. She sold kompote. She walked along the river to be sure the pirates weren't nearby. She even climbed the bridge a few times, just for practice. Finally, one day as she was sweeping out the front room of the old stable house, Marie Alice looked up to see a fat bird with a dark back and a golden belly. Her mother said that these birds carried spring with them. Marie Alice really hoped that her mother was right, as she was tired of waiting.

While the weather stayed cold, there was some good news for Marie Alice not long after. One day as the passengers were climbing back into the coach after she had sold them some warm kompote, the coach driver handed Marie Alice a letter. The handwriting on it was very small, and Marie Alice hoped very much that the letter was from the witch. She gave the driver some money and was about to leave when he handed her a leather pouch and a small rough-looking box.

Marie Alice thanked the driver and headed back to the little cottage as quickly as she could. Of course, she still sneaked through the woods and hid behind hedges. By now, that was so normal for her that she didn't even think about doing it.

Once she was up in the attic, Marie Alice opened the leather pouch. Inside, there were some funny looking seeds. She undid the latches and opened the wooden box. The box held a carefully folded paper that looked like it contained some powder. Marie Alice wasn't really sure what either one was for, so she decided she should really read the witch's letter.

When she opened it, Marie Alice found that the letter was much longer than she had expected. The witch had never talked to her that much when Marie Alice lived in the little town by the sea. Marie Alice had wasn't sure exactly what she thought the witch would say, but certainly it wasn't seven pages of writing. As Marie Alice read it, she got the feeling that the witch didn't really have anyone to talk to and had saved up so many experiences that she wanted to tell someone. Now that someone was interested in her ideas, maybe they all just came spilling out.

It was a very interesting letter, really. The witch talked about when she had been a little girl, and how she had been sent to a school far from home by her parents. She would go home to visit every weekend, even though it was a long way. When she needed to prepare to leave, she would feel so unhappy that it made her sick. She also talked about how her name was Larinda, but she didn't like the name very much, so she always told everyone that her name was Miranda, since it was the name of a girl in a very famous old book. Larinda talked about how the leaves had fallen off the tree that she lived in, and how much she looked forward to the flowers that the tree would grow in the spring. When Larinda finally talked about what she should do about the pirates, Marie Alice found that she had forgotten all about this problem, as she had enjoyed so much reading about the witch's life.

The first thing Larinda said in this part of the letter is that she was giving Marie Alice some powerful magic, and that Marie Alice should use it only to help. She couldn't use it for money, and she couldn't use it to kill people. She couldn't use it in anger. Larinda said that it was important that Marie Alice promise to follow these rules. Marie Alice thought about her father. He also believed that power should be used to help people and not just to let rich people get richer or to punish people that you didn't like. Reading that the witch wanted this promise made Marie Alice feel that she had made the right choice in contacting her. She nodded her head, held up her hand and said, "I promise."

After this, the letter told about how the poisonous seeds could make the pirates sick for a while, the powder could be thrown into a fire to make the people around it sleep. There was also an incantation that when you said it, facing the west and wearing a black scarf, would summon a cloud of biting flies. Marie Alice wasn't sure if she wanted to try that. It sounded pretty awful, and if the flies came after her or the townspeople, Marie Alice didn't think she'd be able to make them go away very easily. Lastly, there was a tune to whistle that would make anyone who heard it like the whistler instantly. Marie Alice couldn't whistle, but maybe it was time to learn, she thought.

While the seeds and the powder and the cloud of flies were all a good idea, Marie Alice thought that it wasn't very likely that she'd be able to rescue everyone by herself. Mr. Bristol would be no help at all, she thought, as he was very afraid. She had told Ryan about her plan, and while he hadn't offered to help, she thought that he might when the time came. The blacksmith might also be able to help too. It was hard to know if someone was helping the ghost men, but if someone was, then it seemed like they would probably tell everyone that they were scared. The blacksmith said he wasn't scared, so maybe he was okay. Marie Alice tried to think of what Sasha would say about this reasoning, but she though he might just shake his head and say, "We'll see!" Since she didn't have any better ideas, and as it was well past lunch time, Marie Alice decided she had better go talk to the blacksmith right away.

The blacksmith's house was just across the road and through a couple of hedges from the little cottage. Marie Alice had become so good at climbing and sneaking now that she was out of the house and across the road in just a few minutes. She could hear the sound of the blacksmith's hammer and smell the fire from his forge. As she got closer, she started to feel the warmth of the forge too, which was such a wonderful relief from the cold. The blacksmith was working just as he had been before, in a sleeveless shirt hammering a piece of metal. She stood off to the side, so as to not be in his way. It seemed like he would have been able to see her, but he just kept hammering. Finally, after he had shaped the metal into a little knife and fashioned a really lovely curved handle, he took a deep breath and said, "What can I do for you, Miss?"

His voice was not as deep as she expected, and it was very very quiet. Marie Alice thought that Sasha would have liked the blacksmith, since he often told her that she talked too loud. He still hadn't looked at her but was examining the knife. Marie Alice decided that being very direct would be the best thing here, so she took a step in front of him and looked at the blacksmith's face. Well, it wasn't really at his face, but at the top of his head, since he was still looking down at the knife. Her father had taught her how to talk to people, and this was the best she could do. She said, "My name is Marie Alice, and I'm going to rescue the townspeople who were taken. They weren't taken by ghosts but by pirates. I've come to ask for your help."

The blacksmith looked up at her. His eyes were a brownish green color that Marie Alice had never seen before. He had a short, blonde beard and a light-colored scar under one eye. The blacksmith stood up, towering over Marie Alice. "How do you know that they are alive?" he asked. His eyes narrowed as he waited for her answer.

"I don't," Marie Alice said. "I don't know if they are just a little way up the river, or if they are all the way at the very top of the world. They may all be dead. If there is a single person alive, though, then I'm going to go and bring that person back."

Marie Alice's voice got quieter. "I found pictures of the family that used to live in that little cottage."

The blacksmith nodded. "They were good people. It is about time someone decided to do something."

He had some bad things to say about Mr. Bristol, but in the end, the blacksmith, who said everyone just called "Smith", agreed to help with the rescue. She asked him if he knew how to whistle, but he said that he didn't and then went back to his work.

Now, it was time for her to talk to Ryan. Marie Alice thanked Smith and snuck back through the hedges to the stable. Ryan wasn't there, so she decided to clean up a little and make some stew for dinner. She was just taking the stew pot off the fire when Ryan came through the door. He bolted it behind him and went through the house to one of the rooms. By now, Marie Alice knew not to ask Ryan many questions or even to wonder about his business. So, she just scooped up some stew for him and set it at his place at the table. She took her own and went to sit by the fire.

Marie Alice's father had never liked to discuss any business while he was eating dinner. He had told her that he only wanted to concentrate on one thing at a time, so why should he ignore tasty food in favor of even more work. The work would still be there after dinner, and he would be more ready for it once he had had a chance to rest. Marie Alice thought that probably it would make sense to wait until Ryan had eaten his dinner before she said anything, so she ate her dinner quietly by the fire, scooping up the soup at the bottom of her bowl with a piece of fried bread.

When Ryan pushed his chair away from the table, Marie Alice stood up and walked over to him. He swung around and looked at her like she was going to try to pounce on him. She wasn't sure why he had such a suspicious look in his eyes, but she decided to ignore it. She said, "I think it is time to go and rescue the townspeople. Smith has agreed to help me. I think that it would be better if we had more help. Will you come with us?"

Ryan relaxed a little. "When will you go?" he asked.

"I think that the pirates took everyone up river, and I don't know how far they went. So, we'll need a boat. We should leave as soon as the river has thawed enough for us to go," Marie Alice said. She really wanted to talk about the plan and try to come up with some good ideas, but Smith hadn't seemed interested in talking, and Ryan was even less so. If only Sasha was here! Sometimes his plans were more work than she wanted to do, and sometimes she didn't really understand them. However, she could always rely on Sasha to help her when she needed it.

Ryan seemed like he was going to ask another question, but then stopped himself. Marie Alice couldn't figure out why he was acting that way. Since she wasn't going to get any answers from him, she just waited. In fact, she ended up waiting quite a while and was surprised how patient she had become. She could barely sit still for a minute back home. Finally, Ryan said, "Will you go at night?"

Marie Alice tried to sound very confident and said, "Yes, the sun still sets pretty early, so if we go just after sunset, it will be a good time."

He shifted his weight from foot to foot. "Well, I may go. The river should be free enough of ice in about a week. The thaw comes quickly this time of year."

Marie Alice thought it was silly that he wouldn't just give a clear answer, but instead of complaining, she asked, "Can you whistle?"

Ryan looked at her curiously and said, "Yes. Well, enough anyway."

"Then, I have a tune for you to learn," Marie Alice said and took out the note from the witch. 

Ryan was right that it took about a week for the river to thaw. It didn't take Marie Alice long to get ready, since she mainly wanted to have dark clothing for everyone and a boat to travel in. The clothing wasn't hard to find, and Marie Alice was even able to get a black scarf to put over her shiny, golden hair, so that it wouldn't attract attention. Smith said that he often borrowed a boat from Mr. Bristol when he went fishing and would just tell Mr. Bristol that he wanted to see if he could catch any blues or wingfish out in the deep part of the river as soon as the ice thawed. After that, Marie Alice just needed to wait. She climbed trees, snuck around, and watched the river. She tried to come up with plans, but she had no idea what she was planning for. She cleaned the little cottage. She cleaned the stable house. She was even getting ready to organize all the boxes in the attic of the little cottage when Ryan met her on the road and told her that the river had thawed enough.

Marie Alice had spent so much time waiting for this moment. Now that it had arrived, she found that she was quite afraid. They would leave that night. What if she failed? What if all the people from the town were dead? She was sure that Sasha would know what to do. Probably, he would think that it made more sense to get everything organized than to sit around worrying, so that was what she did.

First, she went to see the blacksmith and told him that they would leave that night as soon as it was dark. Then, she gathered all the supplies that she had prepared and took them to the stable house. When everything was organized and her dark clothes were laid out, she went to the little store and purchased some sausage, bread and cheese for the trip. It might be a long trip, and she didn't want their rumbling bellies to give them away. Marie Alice also took a couple of bottles of kompote from her supply and packed them in her bag.

The sun began to set, so Marie Alice put on her dark clothes then braided her long golden hair and pinned it around her head. She covered it with the dark scarf and tied the ends around her neck. Marie Alice had been waiting to see if Ryan would meet her at the stable house before she left, but he didn't. She decided that it was dark enough, so she went to the large rock by the river where they had planned to meet. No one was there. Marie Alice felt her heart sink. What would she do now? She was just getting ready to come up with a new plan when she heard the sound of oars dipping into the water. A moment later, she saw the reeds part, and Smith paddled the boat closer to the rock. He and the boat were almost invisible in the darkness.

Smith pulled the boat as close as he could get it to the rock, and Marie Alice slid down the side and hopped in. She was really pleased at how easy she made it look, because she was sure until the last moment that she was going to fall into the water or upset the boat. Smith looked around. Marie Alice was pretty sure that he was looking for Ryan. She was disappointed that he wasn't here. She didn't want to assume, though, that he wouldn't show up at some point. However, since even they didn't know where they were going, she wasn't sure how he would find them. Smith shrugged his shoulders and started to push away from the rock. Marie Alice kept hoping that Ryan would appear, but he didn't.

The boat passed through the reeds and out into the river. They headed upstream. The river wasn't flowing very swiftly, and Marie Alice was pleased that they seemed to be moving along pretty quickly, although it was too dark to really tell. She hadn't been in a boat in a very long time, and being on the water, even though it was very cold, was very calming. Of course, she couldn't forget the work they had to do, but for the moment, she just concentrated on the sound of the oars and the water.

At first, Marie Alice could only hear the sound of the oars dipping into the water and a muffled grinding noise each time Smith pulled them back. He had put black cloth over the metal rings that held the oars to make them less noisy, but in the quiet night, she could still hear the sound. After a while, Marie Alice noticed other sounds too. The oars dripped when Smith lifted them from the water. There was a splash from somewhere along the bank, and she wondered if it was a frog or maybe a fish. There wasn't a lot of wind, but sometimes she could hear it making the reeds along the shore rattle and scrape.

Suddenly off to her left, Marie Alice heard the trill of a bird. Smith sat up straight and stopped paddling. He waited, and Marie Alice listened. Everything was quiet, then she heard a faint scraping noise and smelled a moldy dirt scent. Marie Alice had lived all winter in the stable house, and by now she recognized the smell. It was what Ryan smelled like when he came back from hunting. She had tried to be helpful and had offered to wash Ryan's smelly hunting clothes, but he had scowled at her for a minute and then shook his head. She leaned over and whispered in Smith's ear, "It's Ryan."

Smith rowed over to a tree that hung out over the water, and in a moment, Ryan dropped in. He didn't say anything, just sat down quietly. Marie Alice was both annoyed with him for having created so much drama over joining them, but she was also quite relieved that he was there. Since nothing would be gained by complaining, she just adjusted her place to balance out his weight a little and went back to listening to the sounds of the night.

They sat in silence as Smith rowed them up the stream. Quite a lot of time had passed, Marie Alice thought, when she noticed a glow coming from ahead of them. Soon, she heard sounds too: men's voices, glass breaking, a harsh laugh. The wind smelled of smoke and garbage. Ryan whispered something to Smith, and the boat started to slow. Smith turned the point of the boat towards the shore, well below the camp, and Ryan hopped out. Smith pulled away into the current again. Now, there were just two of them, and Marie Alice was again disappointed. Probably, Ryan was doing something to help, but she was frustrated that she didn't know what it was. A little part of her wondered if she was angry because she wasn't in charge. It was embarrassing, but she thought it might be true. Ryan probably wasn't very good at following instructions, and who knew if her instructions would be any good anyway. Marie Alice shrugged her shoulders. It was okay to not be in charge.

The boat crossed the river to the side far away from the pirate camp. Smith rowed them well past the camp before bringing them across the river again and finding a place to land. He maneuvered the boat around a rock, and suddenly there was a dock next to them. At least, Marie Alice thought it was a dock. But then it rocked a little in the water. Smith whispered, "It's a barge from the town. They used to ferry people across the river on it."

Marie Alice hadn't had a plan for how to get all the people - if they managed to find anyone - back to the town. This barge, though, would clearly do the job. Good! One less thing to worry about. While Marie Alice admired the barge, Smith brought the little boat in towards the shore. There were fewer reeds here, and he was able to get them very close with almost no noise. The little boat plowed into the sand, and Smith jumped out. He slid the boat up onto the sand and then tied it to a tree. Marie Alice walked forward and jumped out. They had, at least, made it this far.

Pleased with their progress, Marie Alice looked around for a path. It was hard to see anything in the darkness, but after some searching, she found one, although it was pretty overgrown. She pointed it out to Smith. He started following it, with Marie Alice walking behind him. Marie Alice could smell the smoke from the fires, as well as the river and the tar-y smell of the old barge. They walked forward quietly... quietly.... Suddenly, there was a loud crunch. Smith quickly bent over to see what it was. At least, Marie Alice thought he was bending over to look at something. However, when he didn't move, she came around to the side and saw that his foot had been caught in a trap. She couldn't believe that he hadn't made a sound. It looked very painful.

Marie Alice whispered, "What do you need me to do?"

Smith didn't speak but gestured for her to move back. She saw him bend forward a little more, then his muscles strained and strained. Smith fell backwards, and there was a metallic snap. Marie Alice worried that the pirates would have heard the noise, but she didn't hear any raised voices. She bent over Smith and asked, "Can I help you?"

Smith nodded, and with his arm around her shoulder, they were able to get him back to the bank not far from the barge and the boat. Marie Alice worried that Smith would be upset that he couldn't help, so she asked, "Do you think you can guard the boat and the barge? This way, we can be sure that we'll be able to leave."

Smith nodded again. Marie Alice didn't have much that she could give Smith to help him, but she gave him almost all of the food she had brought, plus the kompote. She also took off her long warm stockings and gave them to Smith. He looked at her like she was crazy, but she said that maybe he could use them to stop the bleeding. He smiled a little, although even in the very faint light, Marie Alice thought he looked pale. Then, there was nothing left to do to help Smith, so she turned and started walking back towards the pirate camp. A whistle from behind her caught her attention. Marie Alice spun around. Smith was pointing at a long stick on the ground. Marie Alice picked it up. It wasn't too heavy or too hard to hold. Though it branched out a little at the top, that part was above where her hand would go, and the little branches didn't stick out so far that she was likely to scratch her face. Smith made a gesture like he was poking something in the dirt ahead of him, and Marie Alice nodded. She should test the path for traps. With her walking stick in hand, she turned back to the path.

The ground in this area wasn't much above the level of the river, and Marie Alice soon ran into wet patches and then puddles and then a section of path that was entirely covered in water for at least twice the length of her walking stick. She was able to go around or hop over the other wet areas, but this one was deep and far too broad for her to cross without getting very wet. The weather was still very cold, and she was afraid that getting wet would be a very bad idea. Instead, she decided to try working her way through the tall grass and reeds, using her walking stick to test the ground in front of her.

Marie Alice quickly found that walking through reeds was pretty difficult and very very loud. There was no way she was going to sneak up on anyone like this. The ground was also really uneven, and even with her walking stick, she stumbled often. When the reeds gave way for a short distance to tall grass, Marie Alice spotted a tree that shown a little with the light from the camp. She decided that if she made her way to the tree, maybe she'd be able to find a better way into the camp from there. Unfortunately, the grassy area was also very very muddy, so she had to carefully make her way along the edge of the reeds until she finally found firm enough ground to walk to the tree.

The tree was one of the very tall ones that grows near rivers, and Marie Alice immediately spotted a good way to climb up it. She made her way up the tree, until she could see the pirate camp from where she was hidden in the branches. There really weren't that many pirates walking around. Four were sprawled on the ground near a large fire, drinking from mugs. Another two stood nearby, also drinking. They looked bored. According to her observations, that was half of the pirates. There were about five big tents in the clearing, in a big circle around the fire. A path led from the camp away from the river. The other pirates were probably either in the tents (although it probably wasn't even dinner time, so Marie Alice didn't think it was too likely that they were sleeping) or at the end of that path.

When nothing else happened for a little while, Marie Alice tried to make out the best path to get to the camp. It wasn't that far away, but she wanted to be sure that she could get there quietly and without too much trouble. The best looking route was towards a tent that was pretty far back from the fire. Its back was in shadow, and there was a thicket of trees behind it. Getting there didn't look like it would be very difficult. Looking back, Marie Alice could see that she had come through the hardest part. If she avoided the low areas, which were likely to be muddy and stayed by the trees, she could make it most of the way. There was a dark place that that she wasn't sure about, but she'd deal with that when she came to it. Having finally figured out what she needed to do, Marie Alice climbed down the tree and started to work her way over to the back of her target tent.

Having looked at everything from above made the journey much easier, and soon Marie Alice was behind the tent. The big dark spot was actually a place where the grass had all been burned down by a fire. She was pretty sure that no one had heard her sneaking around. She pulled up the stake from the back corner of the tent and slid inside on her belly. She pulled her legs in under her. When she looked up, there was a knife pointed at her face.

The tent was pretty dark in the back, but the front area was lit by firelight that was coming in the open flaps. In front of her stood a young boy of about seven years old. He was holding a knife that was at least as long as her hand, and he looked like he knew how to use it. After a moment, Marie Alice recognized him as the little boy from the photos in the attic of the little cottage. The knife shook in his hand. He looked angry and then scared, but when Marie Alice just stood calmly and looked at him, the knife stopped shaking.

"Who are you? What are you doing here?" he asked, frowning.

"My name is Marie Alice. I came to find you and your parents," Marie Alice said.

"They're dead," the boy said. His face scrunched up into a scowl. "You should just leave."

Even though the boy seemed angry and like he wanted her to leave, Marie Alice noticed that he was keeping his voice very quiet. Also, he stopped looking at her.

"What's your name?" Marie Alice asked.

A log outside in the fire snapped loudly, and both Marie Alice and the boy turned towards the flap of the tent. No one moved outside. Eventually, the boy looked up at her and said, "Peter."

"Do you want to stay here, Peter?" Marie Alice asked.

"I'd be all alone there. My parents are dead, and the men would just come back and take me again. Then," he paused, and Marie Alice wondered if he was going to finish what he was saying. After a moment, he said more quietly, "then, they would punish me. Besides, everyone will know that I helped the men."

"Did you want to?" Marie Alice said.

"No," Peter replied. He looked away from her again. He sniffed, and Marie Alice thought he was trying not to cry. "I ran away twice. I tried to find my parents. But, I couldn't. Then, the men said that they killed them. They killed my parents, because I was bad."

Marie Alice found that she was so angry that she would have been happy to go outside and fight the pirates with her bare fists. Of course, that was stupid. It would just get her killed or locked up or maybe something worse. Instead, she had to follow her plan to get Peter away from here.

"If you could go away from here and be safe from those men, would you go?" she asked.

Peter's eyes were wet with tears. "They would find me," he said.

"What if they couldn't? What if you would be safe?"

It took a long time for Peter to answer, but finally he said, "Okay."

It wasn't really an enthusiastic answer, but Marie Alice thought that probably it was a start. She didn't have a lot of time, anyway, so if they were going to get whatever people from the village who were still at the camp and escape, they had to hurry. Marie Alice said, "I'm going to free everyone from the village. I have a plan, and I have some magic, but I'm going to need your help."

Peter's eyes got big for a minute, but then he frowned and said, "They will punish me."

"I just need two things from you. I need to know where the people from the village are, and I need to know about the food that the men will eat tonight," Marie Alice said. She had been lying about having a plan before... well, she kind of had a plan. Anyway, Peter seemed to feel better when she sounded like she knew what she was doing. He didn't look so upset when she mentioned the food.

"I cook for them," Peter said. "They will eat soon. The soup is cooking on the fire out there now."

Marie Alice was so relieved. This was the best possible answer, as the beans from the witch could be put in a big pot of soup easily. They would make all the pirates sick but wouldn't kill anyone. She opened a bag and took out the packet of beans. She had crushed them up a little earlier so that they would work faster. Handing the packet to Peter, she said, "Go put these into the soup and then stir it really well. They are magic beans and will make the men sick."

Peter opened up the packet and looked suspiciously at the beans. They were broken and didn't look special at all to him. He looked like he might argue, so Marie Alice said, "You need to hurry. They will need some time to cook."

This seemed to make sense to him, and it occurred to Marie Alice that he had probably cooked a lot of beans in the time he had been here. She stepped back in the shadows so that no one could see her as Peter went out. When he came back, she asked, “Where are the people from the town?”

“They are up the hill, in a mine,” Peter said.

"Okay, you stay here, and I'll come back to get you when I've freed the people from the town."

"No!" Peter said, and Marie Alice couldn't help but cringe at how loud he had spoken. She looked at the flap to the tent, but no one appeared there.

"Peter, you have to be here to feed them," she said.

"You won't come back for me."

"I will."

"What if you don't? Or what if something happens?"

"Peter...." Marie Alice said, but Peter interrupted her.

"I'm afraid," he said.

Well, it was a reasonable thing to be afraid in this situation, Marie Alice thought. She needed him to be brave for just a little while and pretend that nothing had happened. Of course, it was a lot to ask of a little boy. She felt bad asking him to stay, but if he left and then someone came looking for him, the pirates would know that something was happening. She wasn't going to abandon him, no matter what. So, she decided that she would just help him with his confidence.

"I'm going to tell you a secret," Marie Alice said. "I'm a princess." She pulled back the black scarf to show him her shiny, golden hair. "I understand why you are afraid, but I need you to be brave. I need to stay for just a little while longer. To help you, I'll cast a spell on you to give you courage, okay?"

Peter's eyes got big, and he nodded.

"Close your eyes," she said. "Now, I want you to picture me in your mind. I have a golden glow around me. It is my strength. Do you see it?"

"Yes," Peter said very quietly.

"Now, hold out your hands," Marie Alice said. "Can you feel the glow? It is warm. Do you feel how strong it is?"

Peter nodded.

"Okay, now, I'm taking some of my glow, and making a ball of it in my hands. A glowing ball of warm light. Now, I'm going to spread that light all around you," Marie Alice said, patting the air around him. "You won't be able to see it when you open your eyes, but it will be there, and it will give you courage. When you need more courage, you just need to close your eyes, call on the energy I gave you and picture it all around you. It will also help your own light grow stronger. When you are ready, you won't even need my light at all, because you will have your own.

"We're almost ready," said Marie Alice. "I'm spreading the light around your head now. And now, I'm working my way down your arms. Can you feel it? And now over your stomach and back. Now, down your legs. You are covered in a warm, shining light. I'll just make sure I've got it everywhere.... Just a little more here... and here. Okay, now, we're done. You can open your eyes."

"Can you feel the energy?" Marie Alice asked. She was nervous when she asked him, because what she said was only kind of the truth. However, Peter looked calm and much more confident than he had a few minutes before. He nodded, and Marie Alice hoped that her spell would last long enough for her to free the prisoners and get back to Peter.

"Which way do I go to get to the prisoners?" Marie Alice asked.

Peter said, "You just need to walk up the path that goes away from the river. It isn't far."

"Okay," Marie Alice replied, "A little while after I leave, you can serve them dinner. That will give me time to get there, before they eat, and then hopefully, they will be too sick to stop us, when I come back."

Peter nodded again. Marie Alice really wanted to say something to help him, but she thought that she had probably said enough. So, she slipped out under the loose corner at the back of the tent.

After the darkness inside the tent, the night seemed almost bright. She walked quietly past the backs of tents until she came to the last one. Beyond it was some grass and a path leading upwards. Marie Alice wasn't sure that walking on the path was a great idea. On the other side of the path, though, across a space of somewhat trampled grass was a grove of trees. Marie Alice looked both ways, up and down the path, and then ran across into the trees. She waited in the shadows, but she didn't hear anyone. This was definitely easier than she had expected.

It didn't take long for Marie Alice to regret thinking that this was so easy. Near the top of the hill, she found four very big, angry looking men, standing near a fire. They seemed to be talking about something that was going on in a cave nearby. At least, she guessed this, because they kept looking at it. Probably, that was the mine. She definitely wasn't going to be able to get in there and sneak all the townspeople out with those guys standing there. They were standing near the fire, which reminded Marie Alice that she had the magic sleeping powder from the witch.

Marie Alice looked up. There were no trees that had limbs out over the fire. There were no bushes near the fire, no big rocks, nothing at all to hide behind. Even the grass was pretty short beside the path. Since she couldn't get any closer, Marie Alice took the little packet of powder and threw it as hard as she could toward the fire. It fluttered in the air for a moment and then dropped at her feet. She picked it up again. She hadn't thought about practicing throwing things. There were a lot of useful things that she had never learned as a princess.

Maybe the little packet wasn't heavy enough, she thought. She looked around but didn't see anything small enough and heavy enough that she could attach it to the little packet. She picked up a little piece of wood that looked like a rock in the darkness, but it was pretty light too. Marie Alice searched as quietly as she could in the trees for a while on her hands and knees, feeling the ground, and finally found a rock almost as big as her palm. She pulled out one of her long, golden hairs and then, holding the packet on top of the rock, she wound the hair around them until they were tied together pretty well. She slipped the hair under a couple of the loops, and it seemed like it would stay in place long enough for her to throw the rock into the fire.

Back by the fire, the men were still talking. Actually, they were arguing now, and they looked pretty angry. She still couldn't hear what they were talking about, but they kept looking at the cave and pointing. Marie Alice waited until the men were all looking at the cave and then tossed the rock at the fire. Ptfff. It landed with a little puff of dust in the middle of the path.

Marie Alice wanted to cry. Crying wasn't going to help, though, and when she thought of Peter, who was waiting for her in the tent, and Smith, who was waiting for her to rescue the townspeople, she knew that she had to keep going. Sasha would have probably told her to just go get the rock and try again. There was a good chance that no one would see her in the dark, since she was wearing black clothes. Marie Alice went back into the woods and found a stick about as long as her arm. Maybe she could use it to pull the rock away from the light.

On her belly, Marie Alice started to crawl out of the trees towards the path. She put the stick on her back, since she didn't know where else to put it. She hadn't practiced crawling very much either. As soon as she got back home, Marie Alice thought, she was going to make some changes. Being pretty was just fine, but being only pretty? If a person just looks pretty and can't help the people that they care about... well, Marie Alice thought that was sad. If she had spent just a few minutes less every day thinking about clothes or her hair, she could have practiced throwing things, and then she wouldn't have been crawling through grass in the middle of the night just a few feet from a group of angry pirates. Just as she was starting to get a little bit grouchy about her situation, Marie Alice slithered to a place where she could see the rock. She slowly took the stick off her back and held it out ahead of her. Just a little bit short. She scooted forward and tried again. Now, she could reach the rock! She put the stick on top of the rock and pulled it towards her. The rock moved a few inches, and then the stick slipped. Marie Alice tried again. This time, the rock didn't move at all before the stick slipped. She tried again. The rock moved another inch. One of the men coughed, and Marie Alice froze. She waited, but they went back to their conversation, so she tried again with the stick. This time, she was finally able to pull the rock to the edge of the grass. Suddenly, Marie Alice heard a foot step near her in the grass. She looked up to see a boot, a big black boot, and then someone grabbed the back of her shirt.

"Well, what do we have here?" a man's voice asked.

Marie Alice knew that phrase all too well. Whenever she and Sasha got into trouble, someone would say that. The man had started to pick her up by the back of her shirt. Marie Alice had to get that rock. She pulled her legs under her, pushed up for a second, then threw herself back toward the ground. The man didn't expect her change in direction, and she got free. Marie Alice grabbed the rock. She tried to run, but it was too late. A big hand came down and grabbed her arm. Marie Alice looked up, but the man's face was hidden in the darkness. He started dragging her toward the fire. No one had ever treated her like this before. After all, she had been a princess. It was very frightening, especially when she thought about what would probably happen to her. She remembered Peter and how the men had killed his parents. She remembered Peter's fear, and it made her so angry that Marie Alice twisted around and bit the hand that held her arm. She bit down as hard as she could, and with a shout, the man flung her away.

Marie Alice landed by the fire. While she hadn't done it intentionally, Marie Alice had had a lot of practice falling. As soon as she hit the ground, she rolled over and tossed the rock into the flames. Of course, she didn't want to fall asleep because of the powder, so she started to run away. There, ahead of her was the stick, so she grabbed it just a moment before another one of the men grabbed her. Marie Alice hit him with the stick as hard as she could. The stick didn't break, which was quite a surprise. It hit him in the side of the head, and he let go of her to cover the spot. There was no way she could get away from them by running, so Marie Alice said in her loudest, most commanding voice, "Hear me creatures of the night!" and started casting the witch's spell to summon the biting flies.

Getting bitten by a bunch of flies sounded pretty awful, and Marie Alice expected that when they came, she'd probably get bitten just like everyone else. However, she couldn't think of anything else to do. She waved the stick above her head. It wasn't part of the spell, but she hoped that it would keep the men from grabbing her again. She faced what she thought was the west and said the lines that the witch had written. With every line, she took a step away from the fire. Marie Alice could see two of the men coming after her, while another one moved around the fire to keep her from running away. One of the men, though, had started moving away from her. When she got to one of the really good parts in the spell, about how all her enemies would be cursed, the man screamed. It sounded a lot like a princess's scream, and Marie Alice was so surprised that she jumped. The man who started wailing. "Ohhh, no! No! There was a witch who lived near me when I was a boy, and she killed my uncle with a spell. She's a witch! A witch! She'll kill us all!"

The man's screams surprised the other men enough that they all took a step back from Marie Alice towards the fire. One of them started coughing. Then another. Soon, they were all doubled over, coughing. Within a few seconds, they had all collapsed onto the ground, except for the screaming man, who was pretty far away from the fire. Marie Alice wondered if he would try to grab her now, but instead he let out an even louder scream than before and ran off in the direction of the main camp.

Marie Alice could see the smoke from the fire drifting upriver, so she went around the fire in the opposite direction. She guessed that probably the effects of the magic powder didn't last very long, so she needed to hurry. She was about halfway around the fire, when she saw a face at the mouth of the cave.

The face was dirty and scared, Marie Alice thought, but it was hard to be sure, since she wasn't very close. She continued around the fire, and when she got to a spot where the person could see her, she pushed the black scarf off her head. In a very clear, calm voice, she said, "It is safe to come out."

Marie Alice wasn't positive that she was talking to one of the prisoners, but the men hadn't gone into the cave, so she guessed that there was some problem there. A problem for those men was probably a good thing for her. It was just a guess, but Marie Alice was ready to be done with this camp. She decided it was time to be a little more bold.

The face turned towards her as soon as she spoke. A minute passed, and then a woman, a very tired and dirty-looking woman, whose clothes were filthy and worn, came out of the cave. She looked at the men lying on the ground then made a motion with her hand. From the cave more people came. More and more and more. They were quite a crowd, and Marie Alice motioned them away from the fire, just in case there was still some smoke from the magic powder. The people came towards her with shock on their faces.

Since everyone was just looking at her, Marie Alice thought that she should probably say something. "I have come to bring you back to the town by the ford in the river. There's a little boy named Peter, too, who we need to get before we go."

One of the women in the group let out a little cry and ran up to Marie Alice. Her legs didn't seem to work well, and she stumbled a little. Once she was closer, Marie Alice recognized her as Peter's mother from the photograph. While she looked sick and thin, the pirates had clearly lied to Peter when they told him that his parents were dead. Now, she could see that they had just tricked Peter into thinking that he had no one left who loved him or who would take care of him. Marie Alice walked up to Peter's mother and said, "Peter's okay, but he's scared. The men told him that you were dead. It has been very hard for him."

Peter's mother spoke very quietly. She said, "They said that if we didn't work, they would kill him. If we tried to escape or if we caused problems, then they would hurt him. What could we do?"

She started to cry, and Marie Alice couldn't really comfort her. It was time to go.

"Are there any more people in there?" Marie Alice asked, pointing to the cave.

"No," a man said. "Not long ago, a little while before the screaming started, the hunter Ryan came into the mine like he owned it and did something to the guards. He took Miriam and Bernstock with him when he left."

"Well, then there is no reason for us to stay here. Let's go get Peter and leave. Smith is guarding a raft that will take everyone home."

Marie Alice expected some reaction, but they were all silent. She put the black scarf back over her hair and started down the path. It didn't take long to get to the main part of the camp with the big fire and cook pot. Some pirates lay on the ground moaning. They didn't do anything when the group walked past. Marie Alice went into the tent and found Peter. He was packing up some things. He didn't smile, but he met Marie Alice's eyes and nodded.

There didn't seem to be any point in hiding the truth from him, so Marie Alice said, "Peter, your mother is outside."

His eyes widened. He stood still for a moment, then he shouted, "Mama!" He ran past her with his arms stretched out. Marie Alice turned to see him staring at his mother and a man who was holding her. Marie Alice guessed it was his father, but she couldn't really tell. Peter didn't move, and Marie Alice wondered if he was afraid his parents would blame him. She walked up to him and whispered in his ear, "The men told your parents that if they didn't work or if they tried to get away, then they would hurt you. Those men lied to all of you. Don't believe any of their lies. Your parents love you. You'll see."

Peter stepped forward. His mother fell onto her knees, wrapped her arms around him, and sobbed into his hair. Peter looked over at Marie Alice. He looked surprised. Marie Alice nodded, hoping that he would see that it was okay, and Peter put his arms around his mother. His father stepped forward, and Marie Alice turned back to the tent. She would get Peter's little bag, so they could leave.

The group walked to the barge where Smith was waiting. All the traps along the path had been disarmed. Peter talked the whole way about how the man had come running into the camp, screaming about a witch. He had seen the men on the ground and had let out a shriek. Then he turned and just started running into the woods. Peter thought it was very funny. Marie Alice was only glad that it had worked. They found Smith on the barge. When Marie Alice greeted him, he said, "Ryan came just a few minutes ago with his people. He took the boat, since we don't need it."

Marie Alice thought that it was a bit strange that Ryan hadn't waited for her, but she couldn't complain. She helped everyone get onto the barge, and then Smith and a few others pushed it off into the river.

The river was very quiet with just the quiet lapping of water and the occasional cough from the townspeople on the barge. Smith handed out a little bit of food to each person. Everyone sat down and stayed very still during the trip. When they reached the dock some time later, the barge was tied up, and everyone climbed off. Someone started crying but most just started walking slowly back to their houses. A tall man was helping Smith back to his house, so Marie Alice decided it was time to go to bed. She disappeared quietly into the bushes and made her way to the stable house. When she knocked on the door, Ryan opened it. She wondered if he would tell her to go away or thank her, but he just stood back far enough for her to get in and nodded towards the fire. Marie Alice didn't need any more than that. She lay down in front of the fire and fell asleep.

Marie Alice woke up the next morning to a knock on the front door. She was still wearing her clothes from the night before, but her golden hair had come loose. It stuck out in all directions. Marie Alice was pretty tired still, and it was hard to care about her messy hair. Since Ryan didn't seem to be around, she got up and opened the door. Outside stood Mayor Bristol and pretty much every single person in town. Smith was using a crutch, and even the old woman she had heard about who had the dogs was there. Everyone was looking at her. Marie Alice sneezed.

Mr. Bristol had his hat in his hands and was twisting it. Marie Alice thought it had to be awful for the hat. Since she wasn't sure exactly what was happening, she said, "Can I help you?"

The mayor took a deep breath and said, "On behalf of the people of Crossingtown, I would like to thank you for your brave rescue."

It seemed like he was going to go into a big speech, and Marie Alice didn't really want to hear it. She suddenly felt like she was a clockwork toy that had been wound up too much. She needed to go! She needed to go home to her own family. Looking at these people, the sense of gloom and worry that she had pushed to the back of her mind during the winter grew and covered everything like a thunderstorm, getting ready at any moment to drench them all. She couldn't just stand there and listen to a speech, so when the mayor took a breath, Marie Alice said, "Thank you, Mr. Bristol. However, you know that I didn't do this by myself. I had people who helped me. I got help from Ryan and Smith. Without Peter's help, I couldn't have saved anyone. And while it is nice that everyone is back here now, you need to remember that this same thing could happen again. If you just hide and don't take care of each other, then those men could come back and carry you off again. I know you all are tired and probably still scared from what happened to you, but those men may not wait. They took advantage of your fear and isolation. If you want to protect yourselves, you have to start working together to take care of each other. Sometimes, you'll have to work with people you don't really like. Sometimes, you'll have to work when you are tired or cold or afraid. But you've already seen what happens when you don't take care of each other, so if you don't want it to happen again, you'll have to change."

Mr. Bristol looked shocked. He wasn't very clever, and she guessed that he had been hoping that everything was fixed. The people in the group who had been taken by the pirates, though, they all nodded their heads.

While Mr. Bristol tried to figure out what to do, the crowd broke up. People started talking to each other as they walked away. They seemed serious, and Marie Alice hoped that they would do something useful, instead of just making promises that they wouldn't keep later. Marie Alice hadn't noticed Peter in the crowd, but then he started walking towards her, and her eyes met his. She worried that it would be difficult for him to get past what he had been through. What she saw had been pretty awful, and Marie Alice guessed that she didn't know everything that he had been through.

"What will you do now?" Peter asked when he reached her.

"I need to go home," Marie Alice said. "I left a long time ago, and I'm afraid that I've made a very foolish mistake."

Peter nodded. He didn't say anything. Marie Alice tried to think of what her father would do.

"Sometimes, when something really bad happens, the memories haunt us," she said. "Sometimes, it is really hard to get free from those memories. I've given you some of my power, Peter. You can use that power when you need courage. You just need to call it up from inside you. Do you remember how it felt?"

"Yes," Peter said. He looked less sad, less scared now. Marie Alice wanted to give him something else, but she didn't have anything really. In fact, she needed to take something. She felt so stupid doing this, but some part of her felt like she needed to finish her quest, even though another part told her that she was wasting time.

"Can you take me to your parents?" Marie Alice asked.

Peter smiled and took her hand. They walked down the road to the little cottage. Marie Alice was surprised at how different the town looked with people in it. It did seem that people were in shock, but even with their nervous glances and whispers, the town looked much more alive. Peter's little cottage looked different too. They had brought down all the things from the attic, and there was a warm fire in the fireplace.

Through the window, Marie Alice could see that Peter's mother was doing some work in the kitchen, but as soon as Peter opened the little gate, his mother jumped a little and looked out into the yard. She looked at Peter and Marie Alice for a moment and then relaxed. Now that she was here, Marie Alice wasn't exactly sure what to say. "Hi, I'm sorry for having gone through all of your stuff. Can I have this box I found?" She really didn't want to say that. Still, this was the last thing she needed to do in the town, and Marie Alice thought that even though she would sound like a jerk, she probably needed to do it. This quest of hers was starting to seem more and more stupid. Even if the witch she met with Sasha had some magic, which Marie Alice felt a lot less sure about now, was she really going to just wave a wand and make Marie Alice happy? Nothing she had seen on her travels made that sound like a good idea. Back when she lived in the castle, she had had plenty of nice things and good food. She had Sasha to play with, and she was safe and loved. What else did she need to be happy? Probably, Marie Alice thought, she just needed to appreciate all the good things she had had. Now, of course, thinking about what she had left behind just made her sad. It was time to go home.

As they walked up the steps to the front door, it opened, and Peter's mother greeted them with a smile. She still looked tired and scared, but Marie Alice could see that she was trying really hard to look happy. Probably she thought that it would help Peter. Maybe it would. Marie Alice had no idea what to do to help people after they had been kidnapped by pirates and forced to work as slaves. They would figure it out, she hoped.

"I'm so glad you came," Peter's mother said. "I wanted to thank you for all you did to help us. Without you," she looked at Peter, "well, things would have been much worse for us."

Her voice trailed off, and Marie Alice could see that she was trying not to cry.

"When I saw the pictures of your family in the attic, I just had to do something," Marie Alice said.

Peter's mother stepped forward and gave Marie Alice a hug. She had forgotten how nice it was to be hugged, and it made her miss her family even more.

"In fact, all this had made me realize that it is time for me to go back to my family. It has been so long," Marie Alice said.

Peter's mother nodded and then remembered something. She rushed back into the house and opened the cabinet where Marie Alice had found the pale green box. Peter's mother pulled it out and brought it back to the front door.

"I want you to have this," she said. "We don't have a lot, and it is special."

She handed the box to Marie Alice, who stood looking at it for a moment. When Marie Alice looked back up, Peter's mother smiled. She reached into her pocket and pulled out one of the photos that Marie Alice had found in the attic. In it, Peter and his parents were standing together. They looked so happy. She held this out to Marie Alice too. Marie Alice took the photo and smiled. She thanked Peter and his mother and left as quickly as she could. She could feel the tears building up in her eyes. She was so tired of leaving. Once again, she thought that it was time to go home.

Marie Alice hurried back to the stable house. The door was still unlocked. She could hear voices from the back of the house, and she knew that Ryan wouldn't be very happy if he came out and found her. She tied a ribbon around the pale green box and put it in her suitcase. She carefully put the photo of Peter and his family in the envelope with the letter from Larinda, the witch in the south, closed her cases, and carried them outside. She had hours before the coach was going to pass by the bridge, and she felt anxious and nervous. If nothing else, she would need something to eat, so Marie Alice walked over to the little store and bought some bread and little smoked fishes. She put her lunch in a bag and slowly hauled all of her stuff up to the road to wait.


	5. The Fourth Box

Eventually, the coach came, and Marie Alice bought a ticket for home. She felt like a failure for giving up on her quest from the witch, but she felt even worse when she thought of her family. What if they needed her? Her father had taught her that being royalty was about responsibility to the people, but she hadn't been responsible at all. She had just been selfish.

Marie Alice thought about this for her whole ride in the coach. The coach stopped every night at an inn, so that the passengers could sleep. Every day, they traveled. They traveled to the south over the mountains she had crossed so long ago. Then, they traveled for a week in the shadow of the mountains. Marie Alice had never lived in a place like this, with tall peaks always watching her. They made her feel very small. Finally, they came to a town at the crossroads where she would change to another coach that would take her home. The late spring rains had come early, and everything was covered in mud. Normally, people said, these rains were warm and signaled that soon it would be summer. However, this year they were cold.

With all the other tired passengers, she stumbled out of the coach into the little coach station. A thin old man sat behind a desk at the far end of the room. Marie Alice collected her bags and dragged them up to the desk.

“Please, sir,” she said, “when will the next coach to the little kingdom to the west of here be leaving?”

He looked at her sternly and said, “Not for two weeks.”

“Two weeks!” Marie Alice shouted. “Coaches used to come twice a week.”

“That was a long time ago. For a while, there were a lot of people leaving, so coaches went pretty often. Now, though, no one gets out, and few get in.”

Marie Alice was shocked. What had happened? She couldn't imagine that her father would ever have kept people from coming and going as they pleased. When she asked for more information the thin man just shook his head. She bought a ticket for the coach and then dragged her things over to the inn.

There were lots of people crowding onto the porch at the front of the inn, trying to get out of the rain. Marie Alice shouldered her way through and walked up to the front desk. She was nervous about money, since she didn't have very much left. She hadn't expected to have to live for two weeks here, but she didn't have much choice. There was a cheery looking teenage girl behind the desk who had bright blue eyes and shiny black hair. She seemed to know everyone, smiling and talking to each person who came in.

Marie Alice put her bags down and said, “It seems that my coach doesn't leave for quite a while, so I'll need a place to sleep and store my things. How much are your rooms?”

The girl smiled and told Marie Alice the price. It was too much. She barely had enough for one night. She was actually starting to think of really living in a tree when the girl said, “Also, we have shared rooms. There are rooms with four women, ten women, or twenty-five women.”

The prices for the shared rooms were a lot more reasonable, and after doing a little bit of math, Marie Alice decided that she could afford to live in a room with ten women. Then, she'd still have enough money to buy food. The girl at the front desk gave her a key, some sheets, a towel, and some slippers. Her name was Patricia, and she talked non-stop about the weather, the coaches, and her family as she led Marie Alice to the room. There were only five other women staying there at the moment, so Marie Alice was able to choose a bed. The key was to a chest in which she could keep her baggage. After Patricia left, Marie Alice tried putting her suitcase into the chest, but it didn't fit, so she just unpacked everything of value into the chest and shoved the suitcase under her bed.

The cost of the room included one bath a day and breakfast. It was a pretty good deal, she thought. Since there wasn't much else for her to do, Marie Alice pulled out a package of crackers that she had bought in the last town and ate them all. It hadn't used up much time. She took her clothes to the bathroom and washed them in a bucket. She filled up the tub and scrubbed herself clean, splashing around and relaxing until the water got cold. Back in the room, she hung her clothes up to dry around the bed. It was barely dinner time, and she had used up all the things she could think to do.

Marie Alice brushed her hair and braided it. She cleaned her nails. Her braid wasn't completely smooth, so she took it out and braided it again. It still wasn't completely smooth. She was considering braiding it again when she finally accepted that she was going to have to find something to do that would keep her occupied for two weeks.

Patricia was back at the front desk. Marie Alice walked up to her, and before she could say anything, Patricia said, “Oh, what lovely hair you have!”

Marie Alice smiled. She had been so proud of her long, golden hair when she was younger. Now, well, it was hard to decide how she felt about it. It was definitely pretty. It was also heavy and a lot of work to keep nice looking. It got caught on the coach door handle, in doors, and on other people's buckles and pins if she didn't keep it in a long braid around her head. She didn't want to hurt Patricia's feelings, though, so Marie Alice just said, “Thank you.”

She didn't want to get into a long conversation with Patricia, although it would have helped to pass the time, so she started talking before Patricia could say anything else.

“I do mending and other sewing. Since I'll be here for about two weeks, I wonder if you think I'd be able to find any work.”

Patricia looked thoughtful. “Would you be willing to do mending in exchange for your room fees?” she asked.

Marie Alice tried to look calm. This was much better than she expected. “That's more than fair,” Marie Alice replied with a smile. Patricia smiled back.

“Shall I start tomorrow after breakfast?” Marie Alice asked.

Patricia nodded. “That would be great! Just come see me when you are ready, and I'll get you set up. We have so many linens that need repairs.”

Now that her financial situation was looking so much better, Marie Alice realized that she could have dinner in the restaurant! She could afford to buy a few things for herself. “Tell me,” she said to Patricia, “is there any place around here where I can buy writing paper?”

There was a little shop nearby that sold pens, ink, paper, envelopes, and just about every other thing a traveler could need. Marie Alice didn't need much, but it was still fun to walk down the aisles and look at all the things that were for sale. There were dried fruits that she had never heard of before, beautiful shawls woven by hand from silk and soft grasses, and face creams made from goat's milk. Marie Alice didn't need any of these things, though. She just purchased a few sheets of paper, an envelope and a small bottle of ink. As she was leaving, the cashier said, “How long will you be in town for?”

Marie Alice looked up at the woman and said, “About two weeks. Why?”

“Well, I saw that you were enjoying looking at all my wares, and I thought you'd really have a good time when the traveling tinkers come to town. I don't know if it will be before you leave or not, though. They come through about once a month.”

Marie Alice thanked the woman and then went back to the inn. She got some dinner in the restaurant and then went back to her room. She'd never thanked Larinda, the witch in the south, for her help, so she wrote a long letter thanking her and explaining what had happened in Crossingtown. By the time she was done, it had been dark outside for hours. Marie Alice sealed up her letter and went to bed.

The next day, after she sent the letter out to Larinda on a coach headed south, Marie Alice started mending. She fixed linens, clothes for the maids, curtains, and just about everything else that the inn workers could think of that could be fixed with a needle and thread. Every day she got up, had breakfast, and started sewing. She sewed until lunch time, took a short break to eat, and then got back to work. When it got dark, Marie Alice stopped, because her fingers were too sore to keep sewing. She didn't complain, though, because all the sewing kept her busy. She sat in the corner of the kitchen, near a closet where the linens were kept, and listened to the cooks gossip. Since Marie Alice didn't know that much about cooking, she also tried to watch what the cooks did to prepare the meals. Sometimes, if there was extra food left over from breakfast, one of the cooks, a short, round woman with gray hair and a funny accent, would give her some biscuits and jam. It was pleasant and reminded Marie Alice of sneaking around the kitchens in the palace with Sasha. She missed him, and she missed her home. However, she didn't have much longer to wait.

In the evenings, Marie Alice wrote letters. It took her at least four tries to write a letter to Arnold, the man in the south who had taught her about the stars. He had been so sick looking when she last saw him. She really hoped that he was better now. Looking back over what had happened, she realized that she hadn't been very kind to him. She needed his knowledge of the stars and hadn't been clear that she would be leaving, because she didn't want him to stop teaching her. It took her a long time to write an apology, because she found that she was defending her actions. Really, she had treated him this way because she didn't care about his feelings, and there was no excuse for that.

Finally, the day came when she was to leave on a coach for home. While she had been sewing, the time had felt as though it was going by slowly, but now, looking back, Marie Alice was surprised that it was already come to leave. She packed her things up into the suitcase and brought it over to the coach station. The thin man was still behind the desk, and he told her that he coach was expected at lunch time. So, Marie Alice left her suitcase with some others and went out to sit on a bench and wait.

The rain had been lessening every day for the last week, and this was the first day that the sky was blue. There were still clouds, and Marie Alice expected that there would be rain before the end of the day. However, she was still happy to see the blue sky. She noticed that there were a bunch of wagons parked at the end of the street, and since she had nothing else to do, she walked over to look at them. Luckily, this part of town had a little wooden sidewalk next to the buildings, because the street was still pretty muddy. The wagons were covered in mud halfway up their sides, but Marie Alice could still make out painted words on one: “Papa Rimo's Traveling Jugglers”. Another wagon was for a tinker, and another sold healing herbs and scents. There was a whole traveling bazaar there, and as she looked, people starting coming out of the inn and setting up tents around the wagons.

This was definitely more fun than watching coaches roll through town until lunch time. The jugglers were wonderful! These kinds of acts didn't come to her little kingdom often, and she really had no idea that people could be so quick. Lots of travelers came out to the bazaar, and some of them were almost as interesting as the bazaar itself. There were a few wagons that sold food, and Marie Alice bought some meat on a skewer that was really spicy and delicious. She had never tasted anything like it. The bazaar started to get warm and steamy, as the sun moved higher in the sky, and Marie Alice decided that it was probably time to go back to the coach station to wait. As she walked back through the tents, she noticed one that had bracelets and earrings. A big, friendly-looking man standing by the tent said to her, “Oh, my dear, you are so lovely! Surely a beautiful woman like yourself needs beautiful jewelry to highlight her charms. Wouldn't you like some earrings? These pearls come from oyster beds under the eastern sea.”

Marie Alice smiled and shook her head, continuing to walk away.

“Maybe bracelets? A necklace? This beautiful golden box?”

She paused, and the man took a step closer. “This box was made by my brother, who is an excellent metal worker. Into its top are set five hand-carved garnets. Won't you at least take a look?”

It was impossible for Marie Alice to refuse. She felt like such a fool for dedicating so much of her life to finding little boxes. However, she still couldn't resist looking at it. As she turned around, Marie Alice told herself that she was just going to take a look, but when the man unwrapped the box from a soft cloth and held it up for her, Marie Alice knew that she was going to buy it.

Marie Alice had a box made of silver, a box of ivory, and a box of jade. The last box she was supposed to get was to be made of gold. This box definitely wasn't made of gold, but the metal was yellow and shiny. Maybe it was brass. There were five red gems on the top arranged in the shape of a flower. The box itself was very nicely made. Of course, it wasn't a magic box, and the man selling it didn't even claim that it was. Honestly, though, nothing about the other boxes had really seemed like magic either. They were pretty boxes, like this one. Marie Alice decided that it was good enough.

“How much?” she asked.

The price the man told her was far more than she had. It was far more than the cost of all her travels together. It was more than she had earned during all the time she had been away. Marie Alice sighed. Well, she thought, there was nothing she could do about it. She shook her head and started to walk away.

The man called out another price. This one was much less. It was still more than she had, but it was much more reasonable. Marie Alice tried to think of what she had to bargain with. The only things that she had left that were of value were the boxes and her favorite dress that didn't fit her anymore from when she had left home. She turned back to the man and said, “I can give you all the money I have, plus a dress worn by a princess. I bet someone would buy it. Or if you have a daughter....”

The man smiled. Probably he did have a daughter. “How much do you have?” he asked.

When Marie Alice told him, he shook his head. “It isn't enough.”

Marie Alice shrugged her shoulders. She didn't have anything else.

“Your money, the dress, and your hair,” the man said.

Who wanted to buy hair?!? It was such a strange request that Marie Alice just looked at the man in confusion.

“My cousin makes wigs for rich women. They would pay quite a bit for a wig of your lovely hair,” the man said.

Marie Alice saw a coach pulling up to the station and guessed it was probably hers. She didn't have time to think about her feelings on this matter really, so she nodded and said, “Okay. It's a deal. I'll get the dress and be right back.”

She ran back to the coach station, and the thin man behind the desk told her that it was time for her to board the coach.

“Can the driver wait for just a minute?” she asked. “I just need to get a dress from my luggage and give it to a man.”

The thin man shrugged. “You are the only passenger,” he said, “so the driver can wait a few minutes for you.”

Marie Alice dug through her suitcase, found the dress, and dashed back out to the man in the bazaar. A woman was standing next to him when she arrived. The man took the dress and nodded at the woman. “My cousin,” he said to Marie Alice.

The woman took a pair of scissors out of a pocket on her apron and motioned for Marie Alice to turn around. The woman unpinned Marie Alice's braid from around her head and unraveled the braid. Then, very carefully, she grasped a handful of hair and cut if off with the scissors. She laid the hair on a cloth on the table. She cut off another and another. She made a couple last snips, then took out a tiny broom and flicked away some little pieces of hair from Marie Alice's neck.

The vendor wrapped up the box in a red cloth and handed it to Marie Alice. Her head felt so light, and when she ran her hand over her hair, it was all short little prickles. She didn't know what else to do, so she nodded to the vendor and his cousin and turned back to the station.

Once she was aboard the coach, the driver told her that they would probably be picking up people in towns along the way, so she wouldn't be alone for long. Marie Alice didn't care too much. She hadn't thought about how far she still was from home. She had expected that she would be home in a week, but the driver told her that it would be a long trip. She shrugged her shoulders and looked out the window. Maybe her hair would grow out enough that her mother would recognize her.


	6. Chapter 6

In the end, it took quite a while for Marie Alice to reach her family's kingdom. People got on and off the carriage along time way. Only one woman was going as far as she was, and the woman didn't seem friendly at all. When they arrived at the border, which had been a pretty bridge over a little river, there was a wall and a guard post. The driver stopped the coach.

“This is the end of my route,” he said. “I'll be leaving after I have some lunch. If you can't get in, I'll take you back to the last town we passed.”

Marie Alice felt her heart pounding inside her chest. She could not believe that this was her kingdom. Of course, she recognized the bridge, although it and everything around it were much dirtier. The window on the guard post was broken, and the roof was sagging on one side. The wall was tall and topped with broken bottles and pieces of sharp metal. Marie Alice wondered if the wall was to keep people in or keep them out. Either way, her father wouldn't have done this.

A short line had formed in front of the guard post, so Marie Alice took a place. The line stopped pretty far away from where the guards questioned travelers, as though they didn't want the others to hear their questions. It was strange, and Marie Alice couldn't help but wonder what they were asking.

When her turn came, Marie Alice walked up to the guard post.

“Papers,” the guard said.

“What?” Marie Alice asked.

“Your papers. Give me your papers.”

“What papers?” Marie Alice asked.

“No one gets in without papers. You need identification, plus proof of residency or else a letter of permission to enter. Also, you need a list of every place you have been, the reason for your visit, and who you interacted with there. You can't just walk in, you know.”

“Why not?” Marie Alice asked again.

“Security threats. We need to ensure the safety of the kingdom's residents,” the guard said. “If you don't have papers, you'll have to leave. Next!”

Marie Alice stood in front of the guard post, unsure what to do. A woman walked up to her and glared, until Marie Alice took a step back. The woman looked at Marie Alice's short hair with a curled lip and said, “Foreigners.” Then she gave her papers to the guard.

A young guard walked up to Marie Alice and said, “I'm sorry, ma'am, but you have to leave. You can't just stand here. There are security concerns.”

Marie Alice couldn't help it. She started to cry. The guard helped her back towards the coach. She had absolutely no idea what was going on, but it was pretty clear that something awful had happened in her kingdom. It was her responsibility, and she needed to fix it. She took a deep breath and dried her tears. The thin man at the coach station had said that lots of people had left the kingdom and few people traveled there anymore. Marie Alice guessed that this meant that the wall was to keep people in. She would have to study the situation and be sure. First, though, she could gather some information from the guards. They already knew that she didn't have papers, so maybe she could ask some questions without getting in any big trouble.

The young guard had seemed friendly, and the other guard was busy writing something. Marie Alice walked up to the young guard and said, “I visited this kingdom a long time ago, and there wasn't a guard post here. Can you tell me, when was it built?”

“Oh, quite a while ago now,” said the young guard.

“And what happened to the king?” Marie Alice asked.

“The king died when I was just a little kid. We have a new queen now. She is very old but very powerful.”

"But what happened to the queen?” Marie Alice asked, her voice shaking.

“She went mad,” the guard whispered. “Her daughter ran off, and then the king died. But look, there's a law against talking about them. So, no more of this, okay?”

Marie Alice nodded and went back to the coach. She felt like she was falling. Could this be a trick? she wondered. It didn't seem very likely. Her father was probably dead. Marie Alice felt a stab of pain. If her mother was alive, though, she had to help her. And the people. All of this was a terrible way to live. She had caused this mess - tears welled up in her eyes again at the thought - and she would fix it. She could cry after.

The coach driver was soon ready to go, and she was the only one who hadn't gotten through the border. Marie Alice climbed into the coach, and the driver started back the way they had come. As soon as they were out of sight of the guard post, Marie Alice stuck her head out the window and said to the driver, “Excuse me, but could you let me off here? I have some friends who live nearby, and I think I'll stay with them for a while.”

The driver shrugged and let her out. He handed down her bags, and then the coach started forward again. Marie Alice didn't think it was a good idea to stay beside the road, so she dragged her bags into a clump of trees. Since she didn't have any idea what to do to fix this problem, Marie Alice decided to go look at the wall. She put on her sturdy boots and some comfortable walking clothes, then started walking through the woods in the direction she had come.

After walking through the woods for a while, Marie Alice saw a clearing ahead and a wall. She stopped and watched for a while. Nothing happened, so she went a little closer. The wall didn't look very well constructed here. It was just some blocks piled on top of each other. She walked away from the road and found that soon the “wall” was just a metal wire fence. Marie Alice hid in a tree, watching and waiting. Eventually, a little girl in worn clothes crawled under the fence and started picking berries from a bush. She looked back at the fence every few minutes. After a little while, she filled up a basket, got some mushrooms too, and then crawled back under the fence.

It didn't seem that security here was very tight, but Marie Alice guessed that she could get in trouble if the guards caught her inside without any papers. She decided that it would be better to bring only the things that she needed with her, instead of lugging her heavy bags. She walked back to the clump of trees where she had hidden her suitcase, and pulled out some old clothes and worn out shoes. She covered her short hair with a scarf and put the four boxes into a little bag that she carried over her shoulder. She hoped that she would look enough like someone who belonged there that no one would question her.

Marie Alice walked back and arrived at the place she had seen the little girl with no trouble. She looked around, didn't see anyone, so scooted as quickly as she could under the fence. Of course, Marie Alice knew this area of the kingdom, because she knew all the areas of the kingdom. It was a small place, and she and Sasha had spent quite a lot of time just walking together and talking. Seeing such a familiar place in these circumstances was like a nightmare. She walked quietly through the woods when she could. Eventually, though, Marie Alice came to the more populated region and had to walk out in the open.

The few people she passed on the road kept their heads down and didn't look around them. Their shoulders were hunched, like they were walking against a cold wind. When she walked past a little farmhouse, the people in the yard looked up at her with dark, suspicious eyes. No one smiled. Even the animals looked thin and weary.

Marie Alice walked for a while longer, realizing that she didn't have a place to go. She couldn't go to the castle, and all the suspicious looks didn't make her feel welcome asking a stranger for shelter. She walked down to the river where she had met the old woman so long ago. Tears ran down her cheeks, for she knew that she had been tricked and that she had wasted years of her life on a foolish quest. She sat down and looked into the water. She started to get cold and knew that probably she should probably climb back under the fence and find somewhere to spend the night. The idea of leaving when she was so close to home depressed her, and she couldn't find the energy to get up. Marie Alice had lost track of time looking, when she heard a happy tune coming from the road nearby. The happy tune gave her some energy, and she ran up the bank to see who was playing it.

Coming down the road toward her was a wagon. It was drawn by a horse and attached to the horse's leg was a string that operated a drum. Whenever the horse took a step, the drum would sound. On top of the wagon, there was a cat by a box with a broad handle. Every time the cat hit the handle of the box, it would play a joyful melody and out would pop a bit of fish for the cat to eat. All over the wagon were animals and instruments of these kinds. A rat whose wheel played bells, a bird that whistled, a fluffy chinchilla that hopped on chimes, and even a dog that barked in tune. Driving this cart was a man who looked familiar to Marie Alice.

As the cart drew up to her, the man said, "Hello, there! I'm Sasha, and this is my musical zoo. Would you like to hear a tune?"

Marie Alice looked again, and she could see that this was her old friend Sasha. He was a grown man now, probably with a family of his own... and a warm little house... and loving children - all the things she didn't have. Marie Alice cried, "Oh, Sasha! It is me, Marie Alice! What a fool I have been! I traveled all over and brought back four magic boxes. But now that I'm back, I see that it was all a trick. That old woman stole the kingdom. She will never make me happy, and I have caused so much pain."

Sasha shook his head. "Of course, she will not make you happy, Alisa. No one can make you be happy, but we can talk about that later. Things have gotten very bad. It isn't safe for you to stay on the road."

“Here,” he said, taking out a shawl from a pouch behind his seat. “Put on this shawl. Your name is Ilsa, and when I talk to you, you should make dog noises.”

Then Sasha offered his hand, Marie Alice took it, and up up up he pulled her onto the cart. Marie Alice really wasn't sure about the dog noises part of this plan, but if Sasha thought it would work, then she was willing to trust him. The cart started off down the road again with the animals playing their funny tunes the whole way. They arrived at a checkpoint, and Sasha stopped the cart.

“On your way home, Sasha?” the guard asked.

Sasha smiled and replied, “Yep! It has been a long day.”

The guard looked at Marie Alice and frowned. “Who is she?”

“This is my assistant, Ilsa. She's been working for me since her mother died of the fever. She doesn't like to travel, though, so she doesn't usually go out with me. There were some family troubles recently, and I took her over to her aunt's last week. I was afraid she'd get lost coming back, so I went over to pick her up today after my rounds.”

The guard walked to Marie Alice and said, “Papers.”

Marie Alice barked like a dog. She panted a little, rolled her eyes, and then barked some more. The guard flinched back.

“She had the fever herself,” Sasha said, “but she can still help me with the animals.”

The guard stepped away from Marie Alice quickly and said, “You should take her home.”

Sasha nodded, and the wagon rolled forwards, the horse's drum sounding with every step.

Sasha lived in a small cottage surrounded by a field full of tiny houses. In each house lived one of his musical animals. When Sasha's wagon pulled up to the house, he had to spend a great deal of time taking each animal off the wagon, talking gently to it, and then placing it in its house. Marie Alice had fallen asleep before he was done. However, after he woke her and led her inside, he prepared a nice cup of tea for her, and then she felt much better.

Marie Alice showed Sasha the boxes she had brought back. He agreed that they were all very nice but didn't think they were magic. For the first time, she opened them up... and they were all empty, except for the golden box, which had a little slip of paper inside with the merchant's name. All through the night, Sasha and Marie Alice talked about how they would get her family's kingdom back. When the dawn came, they had a plan. Marie Alice dressed up as a gypsy and decorated Sasha's horse with exotic cloths and bells, for Sasha had told her that the old woman never turned away a gypsy from her gate.

When the guards were still yawning, Marie Alice approached the little castle that had belonged to her family. One guard stepped forward and looked at her threateningly. Marie Alice glared back, for this was a look she had perfected long ago. The guard looked uncertain, and Marie Alice knew she had won. She said, "I am a gypsy who has traveled to the four corners of the world. I have a gift for your queen. Let me in."

The guard didn't want to risk turning away a gypsy nor the powerful magic of the queen, so he opened the gate. Marie Alice rode the horse right in.

She rode up the front walk, where she had played with her mother when she was little. She rode up to the front door, where she had kissed her father's cheek before she left so long ago. Marie Alice held back the tears that filled her eyes, climbed down, and opened the door. It didn't take her long to find the queen, for she could hear angry shouts as soon as she entered. Her family's once lovely home was now in a terrible state, for the new queen had no desire to keep it clean and tidy. Marie Alice marched down the hall and into the room from where the shouts were coming.

Inside, she saw the same old woman who she had met on the bank so many years before. The old woman had been cursing one of the servants and threatening to turn him into a toad. When she looked up and saw Marie Alice, she yelled, "Who are you?"

"I am a gypsy, your majesty," Marie Alice replied. "I have traveled to the four corners of the world and have brought you a present from each. Would you care to see them?"

The old woman looked intrigued, and a greedy smile played on her mouth. "Why, yes, I would," she said.

Carefully, from within her robes, Marie Alice produced four boxes: one of gold, one of silver, one of ivory, and one of jade. She told the old woman a fantastic lie about each box, and when she had finished, she said, "But wait, there is one more thing I would like to show you."

Then, with the grace that only princesses and acrobats possess, she opened all four boxes at once. HISS! HISS! Sasha's entire hissing cockroach orchestra poured out from the boxes. The old woman screamed and clutched her chest. HISS! HISS! The cockroaches started forward, hissing together and moving in formation. The old woman ran for the door. HISS! HISS! The cockroaches followed her, hissing a lively tune and making swirls and shapes to accompany the music.

Summoned by the screams, the captain of the guard approached Marie Alice and asked what had happened. Marie Alice stomped her foot three times, and the hissing cockroach orchestra stopped hissing. She stomped her foot again, and they all went back into the boxes. Then she turned to the captain of the guard and said, "I drove that old woman from the house. She never had any magic. She merely tricked you, like she tricked me. I am Marie Alice. My father was king here once, long ago.”

The captain of the guard looked at her, and tears filled his eyes. He said, “I remember your father. He was a good man.”

Marie Alice started to cry. “This mess is all my fault. I can't take back all the pain that I caused, but I will try to make things right.”

The captain of the guard nodded, and Marie Alice thought that he would probably help her.

“I will need everyone's advice, since I've been away a very long time and don't know what has been happening. However, first, I need to find my mother. I've heard that she is still alive, and I'm very worried about her. Will you help me?”

The captain of the guard nodded again. “I bring her some food every day,” he said. “She was so kind to me and my family when she was queen.”

Together, they left the castle and walked for a little while to a boggy area where pigs liked to roll on hot summer days. A little hovel had been built there. It was dark and damp. The floor was a few loose boards. There, Marie Alice found her mother, crying over her lost family. Her mother was thin and pale. Her eyes were ringed by dark circles, and her hair was tangled and dirty. At first, her mother did not recognize her. She hunched over and moved as far away from Marie Alice as she could. Afraid that she would drive her mother further away, Marie Alice started to sing a song that her mother had sung to her when she was a little girl. The sweet song caused the old queen to look at her, and a little light came back into her eyes. "Who are you?" she said.

"It is me, mother. Your Merry Alice."

The old queen looked at her daughter again, and then for the first time in many years, she smiled.

It took a long time for Marie Alice to convince her mother that it was safe for her to return to the castle. Her mother was sick and very much needed a warm bed, hot food, and to see a doctor. She was so weak and thin that the captain of the guard picked her up in his arms and carried her back to the castle.

Marie Alice also visited her father's grave, cleaned away the weeds, and planted bright, cheerful flowers. She sat by the grave for a while, apologized to her father for being so selfish, and then told him about her travels. There was no business that needed to be done right that minute, so Marie Alice allowed herself some time to cry.

Later that day, Marie Alice asked the captain of the guard to invite all of her father's friends and all the wise people in the kingdom to a meeting. Of course, she invited Sasha too. It took a few hours for them to arrive. The meeting took place in the castle's biggest hall. It wasn't very big, but it was big enough. Marie Alice started the meeting by saying, “Many of you may remember me from when I was a little girl. One day beside the river, I met a witch who promised me happiness if I would bring her four magic boxes from the four corners of the world. I was foolish and selfish, so I ran off to find these boxes. It took me a long time to realize that I had made a mistake and longer than that to return. My family raised me to be a better person than that, and I failed them and you. Please forgive me.”

Everyone was much more kind than Marie Alice had expected. One wise man said that Marie Alice had been just a little girl when she had run off, which was true, but she didn't think that it made up for what had happened. Another wise woman, who Marie Alice remembered from long ago, said that if an adult tricks a child, it is the adult who has done wrong. Now that she thought about it, that did seem true too. Marie Alice really wasn't sure what to think anymore. She decided that she would have to spend a lot of time thinking about this. Right then, though, she wanted to start getting the kingdom back in shape.

“What is most important,” she said, “is to fix the problems that the witch has caused.”

“That won't be so easy,” a friend of her father's said. “People have spent years not trusting their neighbors. They are used to being afraid, and it may not be easy to make them suddenly feel safe and happy again.”

Marie Alice looked at Sasha, and he nodded.

“Well,” Marie Alice said, “then we'll try doing it slowly. I will need everyone's advice. People might disagree, but I'd like for everyone to have a say in what happens here. That way, a bad decision by one member of the royal family can't doom a whole kingdom. Perhaps, you all can help me figure out how to make these kinds of changes in a way of which my father would have approved.”

After some discussion, the group decided on a few changes that could be made right away to help the people of the kingdom. Everyone told Marie Alice how happy they were to have her back and then went home. Marie Alice told the captain of the guard that these new changes were now official and that he should tell all the other guards about them. When she was done, Marie Alice was exhausted. She and Sasha went to a sitting room to have a cup of tea.

They sat and drank tea together, talking about how their lives had changed. As they talked, Marie Alice's eyes drifted around the room. It was so strange to be home after all this time. Suddenly, she noticed a strange looking table that definitely hadn't belonged to her family. It had a dark cloth over it, and Marie Alice wondered where it had come from.

She walked over and uncovered it, only to find that it wasn't a table but a large crate.

“I think this must be the witch's,” she said to Sasha.

Sasha walked over and lifted the edge of the lid. Inside was a tank of live frogs, jars of strange powders, and some other things Marie Alice didn't recognize. Sasha looked at it thoughtfully for a while, smelled some of the powders, and then picked up a frog.

"Do you think she really was a witch?" Marie Alice asked. "Are these people she turned into frogs?"

"I think the answer is more interesting than that," Sasha said. Then, he put the frog on the floor near Marie Alice's foot. The frog didn't move. Then, Sasha took some of the power out of one of the jars and put it into a little cup. He dropped a match into the cup and BOOM! When Marie Alice looked around after her initial surprise, the frog was gone!

"Don't move!" Sasha said, and Marie Alice looked quite confused. Sasha pointed at her foot, and she looked down. The frog had hopped behind her foot and hidden there. They tried the experiment several more times and each time the frog hid behind her foot when the boom sounded, even if it had been placed fairly far away.

Sasha gave the frog a couple of bugs from a box in the crate and then put it back in the tank. "The frogs are trained," he said. "That is why it looks like she has changed from a frog. I bet that we will find many other tricks in this crate. One of these powders probably makes smoke and another the bright flash of light."

Marie Alice looked disappointed. "So, there's no magic at all? No real magic? Even the magic I used against the pirates was really just powers and beans."

"Why does this mean there is no magic? There is the real magic. But it doesn't need flashes or clouds of smoke, because they will just distract you from real miracles."

After thinking about this, Marie Alice nodded. She remembered some of the amazing things she had seen on her travels and remembered something her father had said. They had been sitting in this room, and he had told her, "Some kings want to have a fanfare with trumpeters and flags and a parade every time they enter a room. It isn't all the fancy clothes or the trumpets or the crown that makes a king. What makes a king is all the years of hard work to take care of his subjects. Without his people, he isn't much of a king."

Marie Alice thought that maybe real magic was the same way. It didn't need a big noise or clouds of smoke. There were other ways to tell real magic. She thought that her father would probably have something interesting and helpful to say now, and once again she felt sorry for all she had lost and all the misery she had caused. Sasha could see that she was sad, so he said, "I bet there's some cake in the kitchen. Let's go see.”

While they sat drinking tea in the kitchen and eating cake, Marie Alice thanked her friend for all he had done for her. She returned his hissing cockroaches, along with the boxes, since the cockroaches seemed quite happy with them. At least the boxes had made someone happy after all. Since Sasha had helped her so much, Marie Alice asked him to be her royal adviser. He smiled and said, "No. You are my friend, and you will always be welcome in my home for a cup of hot tea and tasty advice. However, being your adviser would not make me happy. Also, you don't need my help with this."

Marie Alice was surprised to find that she wasn't angry or frustrated by Sasha. Instead, she was happy to hear his thoughts and just to be with her friend again after so long. He was right, too. She had traveled to the four corners of the world and had seen many things. Perhaps she could find some wisdom in herself. They finished their tea and walked to her father's study. Marie Alice sat down behind her father's desk. It felt too big for her. Sasha said, "You know, you could write letters to your friends from the four corners of the world. You don't have to give up everything that makes you happy."

Marie Alice felt a wave of calm. She knew that ruling a kingdom would take a lot of work. She didn't know what the future would hold, but she had friends who cared about her. She gave Sasha a hug and then took out a piece of paper and started to write.


End file.
